AWS Backup Construct Library

AWS CDK v1 has reached End-of-Support on 2023-06-01. This package is no longer being updated, and users should migrate to AWS CDK v2.

For more information on how to migrate, see the Migrating to AWS CDK v2 guide.

AWS Backup is a fully managed backup service that makes it easy to centralize and automate the backup of data across AWS services in the cloud and on premises. Using AWS Backup, you can configure backup policies and monitor backup activity for your AWS resources in one place.

Backup plan and selection

In AWS Backup, a backup plan is a policy expression that defines when and how you want to back up your AWS resources, such as Amazon DynamoDB tables or Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file systems. You can assign resources to backup plans, and AWS Backup automatically backs up and retains backups for those resources according to the backup plan. You can create multiple backup plans if you have workloads with different backup requirements.

This module provides ready-made backup plans (similar to the console experience):

// Daily, weekly and monthly with 5 year retention
const plan = backup.BackupPlan.dailyWeeklyMonthly5YearRetention(this, 'Plan');

Assigning resources to a plan can be done with addSelection():

declare const plan: backup.BackupPlan;
const myTable = dynamodb.Table.fromTableName(this, 'Table', 'myTableName');
const myCoolConstruct = new Construct(this, 'MyCoolConstruct');

plan.addSelection('Selection', {
  resources: [
    backup.BackupResource.fromDynamoDbTable(myTable), // A DynamoDB table
    backup.BackupResource.fromTag('stage', 'prod'), // All resources that are tagged stage=prod in the region/account
    backup.BackupResource.fromConstruct(myCoolConstruct), // All backupable resources in `myCoolConstruct`
  ]
})

If not specified, a new IAM role with a managed policy for backup will be created for the selection. The BackupSelection implements IGrantable.

To add rules to a plan, use addRule():

declare const plan: backup.BackupPlan;
plan.addRule(new backup.BackupPlanRule({
  completionWindow: Duration.hours(2),
  startWindow: Duration.hours(1),
  scheduleExpression: events.Schedule.cron({ // Only cron expressions are supported
    day: '15',
    hour: '3',
    minute: '30',
  }),
  moveToColdStorageAfter: Duration.days(30),
}));

Continuous backup and point-in-time restores (PITR) can be configured. Property deleteAfter defines the retention period for the backup. It is mandatory if PITR is enabled. If no value is specified, the retention period is set to 35 days which is the maximum retention period supported by PITR. Property moveToColdStorageAfter must not be specified because PITR does not support this option. This example defines an AWS Backup rule with PITR and a retention period set to 14 days:

declare const plan: backup.BackupPlan;
plan.addRule(new backup.BackupPlanRule({
  enableContinuousBackup: true,
  deleteAfter: Duration.days(14),
}));

Ready-made rules are also available:

declare const plan: backup.BackupPlan;
plan.addRule(backup.BackupPlanRule.daily());
plan.addRule(backup.BackupPlanRule.weekly());

By default a new vault is created when creating a plan. It is also possible to specify a vault either at the plan level or at the rule level.

const myVault = backup.BackupVault.fromBackupVaultName(this, 'Vault1', 'myVault');
const otherVault = backup.BackupVault.fromBackupVaultName(this, 'Vault2', 'otherVault');

const plan = backup.BackupPlan.daily35DayRetention(this, 'Plan', myVault); // Use `myVault` for all plan rules
plan.addRule(backup.BackupPlanRule.monthly1Year(otherVault)); // Use `otherVault` for this specific rule

You can backup VSS-enabled Windows applications running on Amazon EC2 instances by setting the windowsVss parameter to true. If the application has VSS writer registered with Windows VSS, then AWS Backup creates a snapshot that will be consistent for that application.

const plan = new backup.BackupPlan(this, 'Plan', {
  windowsVss: true,
});

Backup vault

In AWS Backup, a backup vault is a container that you organize your backups in. You can use backup vaults to set the AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encryption key that is used to encrypt backups in the backup vault and to control access to the backups in the backup vault. If you require different encryption keys or access policies for different groups of backups, you can optionally create multiple backup vaults.

const myKey = kms.Key.fromKeyArn(this, 'MyKey', 'aaa');
const myTopic = sns.Topic.fromTopicArn(this, 'MyTopic', 'bbb');

const vault = new backup.BackupVault(this, 'Vault', {
  encryptionKey: myKey, // Custom encryption key
  notificationTopic: myTopic, // Send all vault events to this SNS topic
});

A vault has a default RemovalPolicy set to RETAIN. Note that removing a vault that contains recovery points will fail.

You can assign policies to backup vaults and the resources they contain. Assigning policies allows you to do things like grant access to users to create backup plans and on-demand backups, but limit their ability to delete recovery points after they're created.

Use the accessPolicy property to create a backup vault policy:

const vault = new backup.BackupVault(this, 'Vault', {
  accessPolicy: new iam.PolicyDocument({
    statements: [
      new iam.PolicyStatement({
        effect: iam.Effect.DENY,
        principals: [new iam.AnyPrincipal()],
        actions: ['backup:DeleteRecoveryPoint'],
        resources: ['*'],
        conditions: {
          StringNotLike: {
            'aws:userId': [
              'user1',
              'user2',
            ],
          },
        },
      }),
    ],
  }),
})

Alternativately statements can be added to the vault policy using addToAccessPolicy().

Use the blockRecoveryPointDeletion property or the blockRecoveryPointDeletion() method to add a statement to the vault access policy that prevents recovery point deletions in your vault:

new backup.BackupVault(this, 'Vault', {
  blockRecoveryPointDeletion: true,
});

declare const backupVault: backup.BackupVault;
backupVault.blockRecoveryPointDeletion();

By default access is not restricted.

Importing existing backup vault

To import an existing backup vault into your CDK application, use the BackupVault.fromBackupVaultArn or BackupVault.fromBackupVaultName static method. Here is an example of giving an IAM Role permission to start a backup job:

const importedVault = backup.BackupVault.fromBackupVaultName(this, 'Vault', 'myVaultName');

const role = new iam.Role(this, 'Access Role', { assumedBy: new iam.ServicePrincipal('lambda.amazonaws.com') });

importedVault.grant(role, 'backup:StartBackupJob');