What is Lifecycle Management in AWS?
Lifecycle management in AWS refers to the process of automating the creation, management, retention, and deletion of resources over their lifecycle. This helps in optimizing resource usage, reducing costs, and ensuring data protection and compliance. AWS provides several services and features to implement lifecycle management for different types of resources.
In this article, we will discuss about the lifecycle management of EBS snapshots using Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM). We will cover the following topics:
- What is Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager?
- What is the Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager Policy?
- How Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) Works
- How to Create a New DLM Policy in AWS
- Use Cases of Data Lifecycle Manager
- Benefits of Lifecycle Management in AWS
What is Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager?
Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) is a service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enables users to automate the creation, retention, and deletion of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) snapshots and EBS-backed AMIs. It allows you to manage the lifecycle of your EBS resources in a simple and automated manner, ensuring that your backups are created regularly and retained according to your specified policies, ultimately saving storage costs and improving data management efficiency.
What are EBS Snapshots?
EBS snapshots are point-in-time copies of EBS volumes. They capture the entire state of the volume at a specific point in time and allow users to restore data to that state. They serve as a key component for data backup, recovery, and data lifecycle management in AWS.
What is Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager Policy?
Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) policies are rules you create to automate the management of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) snapshots and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). These policies help you automate tasks such as creating backups at regular intervals, retaining them for a specified duration, and deleting them when they are no longer needed.
How Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) Works
- Create DLM Policy: Users start by creating a DLM policy. This policy defines the schedule for creating EBS snapshots, the retention period for those snapshots, and the tags to be applied to the snapshots
- Assign Policy to EBS Volumes: Once the DLM policy is created, users can assign it to one or more EBS volumes. This associates the policy with the specified volumes
- Automated Snapshot Creation: Amazon DLM automatically creates EBS snapshots based on the schedule defined in the policy. This can include daily, weekly, or other custom schedules
- Snapshot Retention: The DLM policy also dictates how long snapshots should be retained. Amazon DLM automatically manages the retention of snapshots, ensuring that older snapshots are deleted according to the policy
- Tagging Snapshots: DLM can apply tags to the snapshots it creates. This helps in organizing and categorizing snapshots for better management and identification
- Snapshot Lifecycle Management: Amazon DLM monitors and enforces the defined snapshot lifecycle, creating new snapshots and deleting older ones according to the policy. This automation reduces the manual effort required for snapshot management
- Integration with AWS Backup: Amazon DLM is integrated with AWS Backup, providing a centralized backup management solution. AWS Backup allows users to manage backups across multiple AWS services, including EBS snapshots managed by DLM
Step-by-Step Guide – How to Create a Default DLM Policy for EBS Snapshots in AWS
1. Log in to the AWS console and navigate to the EC2 page. You can find the ‘Lifecycle Manager’ option under the Elastic Block Store section.
2. Create a new default DLM policy.
3. Enter the policy name and select the IAM role.
4. Configure the schedule as per your requirements. You have an option to define the exclusion parameters. For example, you can exclude boot volume and specific types of volumes from this lifecycle policy. Tags also can be used to exclude specific volumes.
5. It will prompt the confirmation to create the DLM policy.
6. Once the policy is successfully created, you can see the new policy in the Lifecycle Manager section.
This policy will ensure that snapshots will be cleaned up as you configured in the policy.
Use Cases of Data Lifecycle Manager
- Backup and Recovery: Amazon DLM is used to automate the creation of regular EBS snapshots, providing a reliable backup mechanism for data recovery
- Data Retention Policies: Users can implement data retention policies by specifying how long snapshots should be retained. This helps in compliance with data retention requirements
- Cost Management: Automated snapshot lifecycle management helps optimize storage costs by ensuring that unnecessary and outdated snapshots are regularly deleted
- Snapshot Tagging: Tagging of snapshots provides a way to organize and categorize snapshots, making it easier to manage and identify them
Benefits of Lifecycle Management in AWS
Automation: Amazon DLM automates the process of EBS snapshot creation and retention, reducing the manual effort required for backup management.
Consistency: DLM ensures consistency in snapshot creation and retention across multiple volumes, making it easier to manage snapshots at scale.
Cost Optimization: Automated snapshot lifecycle management helps optimize storage costs by removing snapshots that are no longer needed.
Integration: Integration with AWS Backup provides a centralized solution for managing backups across various AWS services.
Conclusion
Amazon DLM is a valuable tool for organizations looking to implement automated and consistent data lifecycle management practices for their EBS volumes. It enhances data protection, facilitates compliance, and helps in cost-efficient snapshot management.
Follow our Twitter and Facebook feeds for new releases, updates, insightful posts and more.
