Creating a DB cluster snapshot
Amazon RDS creates a storage volume snapshot of your DB cluster, backing up the entire DB cluster and not just individual databases. When you create a DB cluster snapshot, you need to identify which DB cluster you are going to back up, and then give your DB cluster snapshot a name so you can restore from it later. The amount of time it takes to create a DB cluster snapshot varies with the size of your databases. Because the snapshot includes the entire storage volume, the size of files, such as temporary files, also affects the amount of time it takes to create the snapshot.
Note
Your DB cluster must be in the available
state to take a DB cluster snapshot.
Unlike automated backups, manual snapshots aren't subject to the backup retention period. Snapshots don't expire.
For very long-term backups, we recommend exporting snapshot data to Amazon S3. If the major version of your DB engine is no longer supported, you can't restore to that version from a snapshot. For more information, see Exporting DB cluster snapshot data to Amazon S3.
You can create a DB cluster snapshot using the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the RDS API.
To create a DB cluster snapshot
-
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/
. -
In the navigation pane, choose Snapshots.
The Manual snapshots list appears.
-
Choose Take snapshot.
The Take DB snapshot window appears.
-
For Snapshot type, select DB cluster.
-
Choose the DB cluster for which you want to take a snapshot.
-
Enter the Snapshot name.
-
Choose Take snapshot.
The Manual snapshots list appears, with the new DB cluster snapshot's status shown as
Creating
. After its status isAvailable
, you can see its creation time.
When you create a DB cluster snapshot using the AWS CLI, you need to identify which DB cluster you
are going to back up, and then give your DB cluster snapshot a name so you can restore from it
later. You can do this by using the AWS CLI create-db-cluster-snapshot
command with the following parameters:
-
--db-cluster-identifier
-
--db-cluster-snapshot-identifier
In this example, you create a DB cluster snapshot named mydbclustersnapshot
for
a DB cluster called mydbcluster
.
For Linux, macOS, or Unix:
aws rds create-db-cluster-snapshot \ --db-cluster-identifier
mydbcluster
\ --db-cluster-snapshot-identifiermydbclustersnapshot
For Windows:
aws rds create-db-cluster-snapshot ^ --db-cluster-identifier
mydbcluster
^ --db-cluster-snapshot-identifiermydbclustersnapshot
When you create a DB cluster snapshot using the Amazon RDS API, you need to identify which DB cluster
you are going to back up, and then give your DB cluster snapshot a name so you can restore from
it later. You can do this by using the Amazon RDS API CreateDBClusterSnapshot
command with the following
parameters:
-
DBClusterIdentifier
-
DBClusterSnapshotIdentifier
Determining whether the DB cluster snapshot is available
You can check that the DB cluster snapshot is available by looking under Snapshots
on the Maintenance & backups tab on the detail page for the
cluster in the AWS Management Console, by using the describe-db-cluster-snapshots
CLI
command, or by using the DescribeDBClusterSnapshots
API action.
You can also use the wait db-cluster-snapshot-available
CLI command
to poll the API every 30 seconds until the snapshot is available.