Sharing a DB snapshot
Using Amazon RDS, you can share a manual DB snapshot in the following ways:
Sharing a manual DB snapshot, whether encrypted or unencrypted, enables authorized AWS accounts to copy the snapshot.
Sharing an unencrypted manual DB snapshot enables authorized AWS accounts to directly restore a DB instance from the snapshot instead of taking a copy of it and restoring from that. However, you can't restore a DB instance from a DB snapshot that is both shared and encrypted. Instead, you can make a copy of the DB snapshot and restore the DB instance from the copy.
Note
To share an automated DB snapshot, create a manual DB snapshot by copying the automated snapshot, and then share that copy. This process also applies to AWS Backup–generated resources.
For more information on copying a snapshot, see Copying a DB snapshot. For more information on restoring a DB instance from a DB snapshot, see Restoring to a DB instance.
You can share a manual snapshot with up to 20 other AWS accounts.
The following limitations apply when sharing manual snapshots with other AWS accounts:
-
When you restore a DB instance from a shared snapshot using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or Amazon RDS API, you must specify the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the shared snapshot as the snapshot identifier.
You can't share a DB snapshot that uses an option group with permanent or persistent options, except for Oracle DB instances that have the
Timezone
orOLS
option (or both).A permanent option can't be removed from an option group. Option groups with persistent options can't be removed from a DB instance once the option group has been assigned to the DB instance.
The following table lists permanent and persistent options and their related DB engines.
Option name Persistent Permanent DB engine TDE Yes No Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition TDE Yes Yes Oracle Enterprise Edition Timezone Yes Yes Oracle Enterprise Edition
Oracle Standard Edition
Oracle Standard Edition One
Oracle Standard Edition 2
For Oracle DB instances, you can copy shared DB snapshots that have the
Timezone
orOLS
option (or both). To do so, specify a target option group that includes these options when you copy the DB snapshot. The OLS option is permanent and persistent only for Oracle DB instances running Oracle version 12.2 or higher. For more information about these options, see Oracle time zone and Oracle Label Security.You can't share a snapshot of a Multi-AZ DB cluster.
Contents
Sharing a snapshot
You can share a DB snapshot using the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the RDS API.
Using the Amazon RDS console, you can share a manual DB snapshot with up to 20 AWS accounts. You can also use the console to stop sharing a manual snapshot with one or more accounts.
To share a manual DB snapshot by using the Amazon RDS console
-
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.
-
Select the manual snapshot that you want to share.
-
For Actions, choose Share snapshot.
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Choose one of the following options for DB snapshot visibility.
If the source is unencrypted, choose Public to permit all AWS accounts to restore a DB instance from your manual DB snapshot, or choose Private to permit only AWS accounts that you specify to restore a DB instance from your manual DB snapshot.
Warning
If you set DB snapshot visibility to Public, all AWS accounts can restore a DB instance from your manual DB snapshot and have access to your data. Do not share any manual DB snapshots that contain private information as Public.
For more information, see Sharing public snapshots.
-
If the source is encrypted, DB snapshot visibility is set as Private because encrypted snapshots can't be shared as public.
Note
Snapshots that have been encrypted with the default AWS KMS key can't be shared. For information on how to work around this issue, see Sharing encrypted snapshots.
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For AWS Account ID, enter the AWS account identifier for an account that you want to permit to restore a DB instance from your manual snapshot, and then choose Add. Repeat to include additional AWS account identifiers, up to 20 AWS accounts.
If you make an error when adding an AWS account identifier to the list of permitted accounts, you can delete it from the list by choosing Delete at the right of the incorrect AWS account identifier.
-
After you have added identifiers for all of the AWS accounts that you want to permit to restore the manual snapshot, choose Save to save your changes.
To share a DB snapshot, use the
aws rds modify-db-snapshot-attribute
command. Use the --values-to-add
parameter to add a list of the IDs for the AWS accounts
that are authorized to restore the manual snapshot.
Example of sharing a snapshot with a single account
The following example enables AWS account identifier 123456789012
to restore the DB snapshot named
db7-snapshot
.
For Linux, macOS, or Unix:
aws rds modify-db-snapshot-attribute \ --db-snapshot-identifier db7-snapshot \ --attribute-name restore \ --values-to-add 123456789012
For Windows:
aws rds modify-db-snapshot-attribute ^ --db-snapshot-identifier db7-snapshot ^ --attribute-name restore ^ --values-to-add 123456789012
Example of sharing a snapshot with multiple accounts
The following example enables two AWS account identifiers, 111122223333
and
444455556666
, to restore the DB snapshot named manual-snapshot1
.
For Linux, macOS, or Unix:
aws rds modify-db-snapshot-attribute \ --db-snapshot-identifier manual-snapshot1 \ --attribute-name restore \ --values-to-add {"111122223333","444455556666"}
For Windows:
aws rds modify-db-snapshot-attribute ^ --db-snapshot-identifier manual-snapshot1 ^ --attribute-name restore ^ --values-to-add "[\"111122223333\",\"444455556666\"]"
Note
When using the Windows command prompt, you must escape double quotes (") in JSON code by prefixing them with a backslash (\).
To list the AWS accounts enabled to restore a snapshot, use the
describe-db-snapshot-attributes
AWS CLI command.
You can also share a manual DB snapshot with other AWS accounts by
using the Amazon RDS API. To do so, call the
ModifyDBSnapshotAttribute
operation. Specify restore
for AttributeName
, and
use the ValuesToAdd
parameter to add a list of the IDs for the AWS accounts
that are authorized to restore the manual snapshot.
To make a manual snapshot public and restorable by all AWS accounts, use the value
all
. However, take care not to add the all
value for any
manual snapshots that contain private information that you don't want to be available to
all AWS accounts. Also, don't specify all
for encrypted snapshots, because
making such snapshots public isn't supported.
To list all of the AWS accounts permitted to restore a snapshot, use the
DescribeDBSnapshotAttributes
API operation.
Sharing public snapshots
You can also share an unencrypted manual snapshot as public, which makes the snapshot available to all AWS accounts. Make sure when sharing a snapshot as public that none of your private information is included in the public snapshot.
When a snapshot is shared publicly, it gives all AWS accounts permission both to copy the snapshot and to create DB instances from it.
You aren't billed for the backup storage of public snapshots owned by other accounts. You're billed only for snapshots that you own.
If you copy a public snapshot, you own the copy. You're billed for the backup storage of your snapshot copy. If you
create a DB instance from a public snapshot, you're billed for that DB instance.
For Amazon RDS pricing information, see the Amazon RDS product
page
You can delete only the public snapshots that you own. To delete a shared or public snapshot, make sure to log into the AWS account that owns the snapshot.
Viewing public snapshots owned by other AWS accounts
You can view public snapshots owned by other accounts in a particular AWS Region on the Public tab of the Snapshots page in the Amazon RDS console. Your snapshots (those owned by your account) don't appear on this tab.
To view public snapshots
Open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/
. -
In the navigation pane, choose Snapshots.
-
Choose the Public tab.
The public snapshots appear. You can see which account owns a public snapshot in the Owner column.
Note
You might have to modify the page preferences, by selecting the gear icon at the upper right of the Public snapshots list, to see this column.
Viewing your own public snapshots
You can use the following AWS CLI command (Unix only) to view the public snapshots owned by your AWS account in a particular AWS Region.
aws rds describe-db-snapshots --snapshot-type public --include-public | grep
account_number
The output returned is similar to the following example if you have public snapshots.
"DBSnapshotArn": "arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:123456789012:snapshot:mysnapshot1", "DBSnapshotArn": "arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:123456789012:snapshot:mysnapshot2",
Note
You might see duplicate entries for DBSnapshotIdentifier
or
SourceDBSnapshotIdentifier
.
Sharing public snapshots from deprecated DB engine versions
Restoring or copying public snapshots from deprecated DB engine versions isn't supported.
The RDS for Oracle and RDS for PostgreSQL DB engines support upgrading DB snapshot engine versions directly. You can upgrade your snapshots, then re-share them publicly. For more information, see the following:
For other DB engines, perform the following steps to make your existing unsupported public snapshot available to restore or copy:
-
Mark the snapshot as private.
-
Restore the snapshot.
-
Upgrade the restored DB instance to a supported engine version.
-
Create a new snapshot.
-
Re-share the snapshot publicly.
Sharing encrypted snapshots
You can share DB snapshots that have been encrypted "at rest" using the AES-256 encryption algorithm, as described in Encrypting Amazon RDS resources.
The following restrictions apply to sharing encrypted snapshots:
-
You can't share encrypted snapshots as public.
-
You can't share Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server snapshots that are encrypted using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE).
-
You can't share a snapshot that has been encrypted using the default KMS key of the AWS account that shared the snapshot.
For more information about AWS KMS key management for Amazon RDS, see AWS KMS key management.
To work around the default KMS key issue, perform the following tasks:
Create a customer managed key and give access to it
First you create a custom KMS key in the same AWS Region as the encrypted DB snapshot. While creating the customer managed key, you give access to it for another AWS account.
To create a customer managed key and give access to it
-
Sign in to the AWS Management Console from the source AWS account.
-
Open the AWS KMS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/kms
. -
To change the AWS Region, use the Region selector in the upper-right corner of the page.
-
In the navigation pane, choose Customer managed keys.
-
Choose Create key.
-
On the Configure key page:
-
For Key type, select Symmetric.
-
For Key usage, select Encrypt and decrypt.
-
Expand Advanced options.
-
For Key material origin, select KMS.
-
For Regionality, select Single-Region key.
-
Choose Next.
-
-
On the Add labels page:
-
For Alias. enter a display name for your KMS key, for example
share-snapshot
. -
(Optional) Enter a description for your KMS key.
-
(Optional) Add tags to your KMS key.
-
Choose Next.
-
-
On the Define key administrative permissions page, choose Next.
-
On the Define key usage permissions page:
-
For Other AWS accounts, choose Add another AWS account.
-
Enter the ID of the AWS account to which you want to give access.
You can give access to multiple AWS accounts.
-
Choose Next.
-
-
Review your KMS key, then choose Finish.
Copy and share the snapshot from the source account
Next you copy the source DB snapshot to a new snapshot using the customer managed key. Then you share it with the target AWS account.
To copy and share the snapshot
-
Sign in to the AWS Management Console from the source AWS account.
-
Open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/
-
In the navigation pane, choose Snapshots.
-
Select the DB snapshot you want to copy.
-
For Actions, choose Copy snapshot.
-
On the Copy snapshot page:
-
For Destination Region, choose the AWS Region where you created the customer managed key in the previous procedure.
-
Enter the name of the DB snapshot copy in New DB Snapshot Identifier.
-
For AWS KMS key, choose the customer managed key that you created.
-
Choose Copy snapshot.
-
-
When the snapshot copy is available, select it.
-
For Actions, choose Share snapshot.
-
On the Snapshot permissions page:
-
Enter the AWS account ID with which you're sharing the snapshot copy, then choose Add.
-
Choose Save.
The snapshot is shared.
-
Copy the shared snapshot in the target account
Now you can copy the shared snapshot in the target AWS account.
To copy the shared snapshot
-
Sign in to the AWS Management Console from the target AWS account.
-
Open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/
-
In the navigation pane, choose Snapshots.
-
Choose the Shared with me tab.
-
Select the shared snapshot.
-
For Actions, choose Copy snapshot.
-
Choose your settings for copying the snapshot as in the previous procedure, but use an AWS KMS key that belongs to the target account.
Choose Copy snapshot.
Stopping snapshot sharing
To stop sharing a DB snapshot, you remove permission from the target AWS account.
To stop sharing a manual DB snapshot with an AWS account
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.
-
Select the manual snapshot that you want to stop sharing.
-
Choose Actions, and then choose Share snapshot.
-
To remove permission for an AWS account, choose Delete for the AWS account identifier for that account from the list of authorized accounts.
-
Choose Save to save your changes.
To remove an AWS account identifier from the list, use the --values-to-remove
parameter.
Example of stopping snapshot sharing
The following example prevents AWS account ID 444455556666 from restoring the snapshot.
For Linux, macOS, or Unix:
aws rds modify-db-snapshot-attribute \ --db-snapshot-identifier manual-snapshot1 \ --attribute-name restore \ --values-to-remove 444455556666
For Windows:
aws rds modify-db-snapshot-attribute ^ --db-snapshot-identifier manual-snapshot1 ^ --attribute-name restore ^ --values-to-remove 444455556666
To remove sharing permission for an AWS account, use the ModifyDBSnapshotAttribute
operation with AttributeName
set to restore
and the ValuesToRemove
parameter. To
mark a manual snapshot as private, remove the value all
from the values list for the restore
attribute.