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Backup & Replication

Cloudaware Backup & Replication protects cloud workloads with policy‑driven backups, cross‑region and cross‑account replication, and repeatable restore workflows. The module builds on Cloudaware CMDB and AWS integration so you can see which assets are protected, close coverage gaps, and prove you can meet your recovery objectives.

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  • Audience: Cloud and platform teams, operations teams, backup administrators, SRE teams, compliance owners
  • Outcome: Policy-driven AWS backup and replication coverage with restore workflows, protection gap reporting, and recovery evidence tied to CMDB inventory

Use Cloudaware Backup & Replication when you want to:

  • Standardize backups for supported AWS compute, database, and object-storage workloads.
  • Identify assets that are missing required backup or replication coverage.
  • Apply backup frequency and retention settings through resource tags.
  • Automatically replicate backup media to secondary regions or accounts for disaster recovery.
  • Retain backup media for terminated or decommissioned resources according to policy.
  • Run and document periodic restore tests for auditors, customers, and internal stakeholders.
  • Report on backup coverage by application, environment, owner, account, or business service.

Core Capabilities​

Cloudaware Backup & Replication provides:

  • Tag-based backup policies – backup frequency, retention, replication, and resource-specific settings defined through tags.
  • AWS-native backups – AMIs, EBS snapshots, RDS snapshots, and supported S3 backup or replication workflows managed in customer AWS accounts.
  • Backup replication – supported backup media copied across AWS regions or accounts according to replication policy.
  • Retention management – daily, weekly, monthly, and orphan retention rules applied to backup media.
  • Coverage reporting – missing backups, replication gaps, and backup status identified using backup-related fields in CMDB inventory.
  • Job and recovery tracking – backup and replication job results, retained media, and restore-test evidence available for operational review.

How Backup & Replication Works​

Cloudaware Backup & Replication follows this workflow:

  1. Discovers supported workloads. Cloudaware CMDB identifies eligible AWS resources, ownership, applications, environments, accounts, regions, tags, and relationships.
  2. Interprets protection policies. Customers set backup and replication tags that define which resources require protection, how often backups run, how long media is retained, and whether copies are replicated.
  3. Creates provider-native backup media. Cloudaware scheduled jobs create supported AWS backup artifacts, such as images, snapshots, and replicated objects.
  4. Replicates backup media. Where configured, backup copies are sent to another AWS region, account, or storage location.
  5. Applies retention policies. Older backup media is retained or removed according to daily, weekly, monthly, orphan, and other configured retention rules.
  6. Tracks jobs and protection status. Cloudaware records job execution, backup status, failures, missing media, and coverage information.
  7. Surfaces coverage and evidence. CMDB views, reports, job records, and backup metadata provide visibility into protection gaps, retained media, and recovery readiness.

Supported Workloads​

Backup & Replication supports policy-driven protection for selected AWS resource types:

  • Compute instances – AWS EC2 instances.
  • Managed databases – AWS RDS instances and clusters.
  • Object storage – AWS S3 buckets replicated to other buckets, regions, or accounts.

Amazon EC2​

Cloudaware can create and manage provider-native backup media for supported EC2 instances, including:

  • Amazon Machine Images
  • EBS snapshots
  • Cross-region copies
  • Retention of media associated with terminated instances

Amazon RDS​

Cloudaware can manage backup and replication workflows for supported RDS instances and clusters using AWS-native snapshot capabilities.

Amazon S3​

Cloudaware can configure supported S3 backup and replication patterns between buckets, regions, or accounts.

Review Configuration and Requirements for current workload support and implementation constraints.

Replication and Disaster Recovery​

Backup & Replication supports:

  • Cross‑region replication of images and snapshots for EC2 and supported workloads.
  • Cross‑account replication for S3 backups and selected media types.
  • Policy‑based retention for orphaned media so backup copies for terminated instances are retained for a defined period.

These capabilities allow you to build region/account‑level disaster recovery strategies without maintaining separate tools or scripts.

Relationship to Other Modules and Integrations​

  • AWS integration provides the inventory, permissions, APIs, and provider-native backup services required for supported workflows.
  • Cloudaware CMDB provides workload inventory, ownership, application, environment, account, region, tag, and relationship context. Using default CMDB list views, KPI summary tiles, and reports, customers can provide evidence of backup jobs.
  • Compliance Engine v1 identifies backup-related misconfigurations, such as missing backups or insufficient retention periods, so teams can incorporate those findings into backup review and remediation workflows.

Explore the Backup & Replication Documentation​

Use these guides together as the Cloudaware Backup & Replication documentation set.

Prepare Backup & Replication​

  1. Review requirements. Confirm CMDB, AWS permissions, storage, encryption, network, workload, and scale prerequisites.

  2. Configure Backups & Replication. Configure supported AWS backup, replication, and S3 protection workflows.

  3. Define retention policies. Configure daily, weekly, monthly, orphan, and compliance-driven retention models.

Monitor and Maintain Protection​

  • Operations: Review backup status, investigate coverage gaps, examine job results, and manage orphaned backup media.
  • Reference: Review backup tags, backup-related object fields, and limits & quotas.
  • FAQ: Find answers about backup storage, schedules, terminated resources, alerts, reports, and troubleshooting.