Taking manual backups

In addition to automatic backups, you can create a manual backup at any time. Unlike automatic backups, which are automatically deleted after a specified retention period, manual backups do not have a retention period after which they are automatically deleted. Even if you delete the cache, any manual backups from that cache are retained. If you no longer want to keep a manual backup, you must explicitly delete it yourself.

In addition to directly creating a manual backup, you can create a manual backup in one of the following ways:

Copying backups. It does not matter whether the source backup was created automatically or manually.
Creating a final backup. Create a backup immediately before deleting a cluster or node.

You can create a manual backup of a cache using the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the ElastiCache API.

To create a backup of a cache (console)

Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
From the navigation pane, choose Redis caches.
Choose the box to the left of the name of the Redis cluster you want to back up.
Choose Backup.
In the Create Backup dialog, type in a name for your backup in the Backup Name box. We recommend that the name indicate which cluster was backed up and the date and time the backup was made.

Cluster naming constraints are as follows:
- Must contain 1–40 alphanumeric characters or hyphens.
- Must begin with a letter.
- Can't contain two consecutive hyphens.
- Can't end with a hyphen.
Choose Create Backup.

The status of the cluster changes to snapshotting.

Manual backup of a serverless cache with the AWS CLI

To create a manual backup of a cache using the AWS CLI, use the create-serverless-snapshot AWS CLI operation with the following parameters:

--serverless-cache-name – The name of the serverless cache that you are backing up.
--serverless-cache-snapshot-name – Name of the snapshot to be created.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:


aws elasticache create-serverless-snapshot \
                        --serverless-cache-name CacheName \
                        --serverless-cache-snapshot-name bkup-20231127

For Windows:


aws elasticache create-serverless-snapshot ^
    --serverless-cache-name CacheName ^
    --serverless-cache-snapshot-name bkup-20231127

Manual backup of a self-designed cluster with the AWS CLI

To create a manual backup of a self-designed cluster using the AWS CLI, use the create-snapshot AWS CLI operation with the following parameters:

--cache-cluster-id
- If the cluster you're backing up has no replica nodes, --cache-cluster-id is the name of the cluster you are backing up, for example mycluster.
- If the cluster you're backing up has one or more replica nodes, --cache-cluster-id is the name of the node in the cluster that you want to use for the backup. For example, the name might be mycluster-002.
Use this parameter only when backing up a Redis (cluster mode disabled) cluster.
--replication-group-id – Name of the Redis (cluster mode enabled) cluster (CLI/API: a replication group) to use as the source for the backup. Use this parameter when backing up a Redis (cluster mode enabled) cluster.
--snapshot-name – Name of the snapshot to be created.

Cluster naming constraints are as follows:
- Must contain 1–40 alphanumeric characters or hyphens.
- Must begin with a letter.
- Can't contain two consecutive hyphens.
- Can't end with a hyphen.

Example 1: Backing up a Redis (Cluster Mode Disabled) cluster that has no replica nodes

The following AWS CLI operation creates the backup bkup-20150515 from the Redis (cluster mode disabled) cluster myNonClusteredRedis that has no read replicas.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:


aws elasticache create-snapshot \
    --cache-cluster-id myNonClusteredRedis \
    --snapshot-name bkup-20150515

For Windows:


aws elasticache create-snapshot ^
    --cache-cluster-id myNonClusteredRedis ^
    --snapshot-name bkup-20150515

Example 2: Backing up a Redis (Cluster Mode Disabled) cluster with replica nodes

The following AWS CLI operation creates the backup bkup-20150515 from the Redis (cluster mode disabled) cluster myNonClusteredRedis. This backup has one or more read replicas.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:


aws elasticache create-snapshot \
    --cache-cluster-id myNonClusteredRedis-001 \
    --snapshot-name bkup-20150515

For Windows:


aws elasticache create-snapshot ^
    --cache-cluster-id myNonClusteredRedis-001 ^
    --snapshot-name bkup-20150515

Example Output: Backing Up a Redis (Cluster Mode Disabled) Cluster with Replica Nodes

Output from the operation looks something like the following.


{
    "Snapshot": {
        "Engine": "redis", 
        "CacheParameterGroupName": "default.redis6.x", 
        "VpcId": "vpc-91280df6", 
        "CacheClusterId": "myNonClusteredRedis-001", 
        "SnapshotRetentionLimit": 0, 
        "NumCacheNodes": 1, 
        "SnapshotName": "bkup-20150515", 
        "CacheClusterCreateTime": "2017-01-12T18:59:48.048Z", 
        "AutoMinorVersionUpgrade": true, 
        "PreferredAvailabilityZone": "us-east-1c", 
        "SnapshotStatus": "creating", 
        "SnapshotSource": "manual", 
        "SnapshotWindow": "08:30-09:30", 
        "EngineVersion": "6.0", 
        "NodeSnapshots": [
            {
                "CacheSize": "", 
                "CacheNodeId": "0001", 
                "CacheNodeCreateTime": "2017-01-12T18:59:48.048Z"
            }
        ], 
        "CacheSubnetGroupName": "default", 
        "Port": 6379, 
        "PreferredMaintenanceWindow": "wed:07:30-wed:08:30", 
        "CacheNodeType": "cache.m3.2xlarge",
        "DataTiering": "disabled"
    }
}

Example 3: Backing up a cluster for Redis (Cluster Mode Enabled)

The following AWS CLI operation creates the backup bkup-20150515 from the Redis (cluster mode enabled) cluster myClusteredRedis. Note the use of --replication-group-id instead of --cache-cluster-id to identify the source.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:


aws elasticache create-snapshot \
    --replication-group-id myClusteredRedis \
    --snapshot-name bkup-20150515

For Windows:


aws elasticache create-snapshot ^
    --replication-group-id myClusteredRedis ^
    --snapshot-name bkup-20150515

Example Output: Backing Up a Redis (Cluster Mode Enabled) Cluster

Output from this operation looks something like the following.


{
    "Snapshot": {
        "Engine": "redis", 
        "CacheParameterGroupName": "default.redis6.x.cluster.on", 
        "VpcId": "vpc-91280df6", 
        "NodeSnapshots": [
            {
                "CacheSize": "", 
                "NodeGroupId": "0001"
            }, 
            {
                "CacheSize": "", 
                "NodeGroupId": "0002"
            }
        ], 
        "NumNodeGroups": 2, 
        "SnapshotName": "bkup-20150515", 
        "ReplicationGroupId": "myClusteredRedis", 
        "AutoMinorVersionUpgrade": true, 
        "SnapshotRetentionLimit": 1, 
        "AutomaticFailover": "enabled", 
        "SnapshotStatus": "creating", 
        "SnapshotSource": "manual", 
        "SnapshotWindow": "10:00-11:00", 
        "EngineVersion": "6.0", 
        "CacheSubnetGroupName": "default", 
        "ReplicationGroupDescription": "2 shards 2 nodes each", 
        "Port": 6379, 
        "PreferredMaintenanceWindow": "sat:03:30-sat:04:30", 
        "CacheNodeType": "cache.r3.large",
        "DataTiering": "disabled"
    }
}

Taking manual backups

To create a backup of a cache (console)

Example 1: Backing up a Redis (Cluster Mode Disabled) cluster that has no replica nodes

Example 2: Backing up a Redis (Cluster Mode Disabled) cluster with replica nodes

Example 3: Backing up a cluster for Redis (Cluster Mode Enabled)

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