Create and manage backup plans
Create a backup plan with a schedule in UTC, a retention window, and the volumes to protect, and then edit, run, pause, resume, or delete it.
A backup plan sets when the volumes assigned to it are backed up and how long each backup is kept. Create the plan once, assign volumes to it, and change the schedule later without touching the volumes.
Before you begin
- You need the Owner or Contributor role, or a custom role with Manage access to Block & Object Storage, on the subscription or on the project. Any role with Read access to Block & Object Storage lets you view plans.
- The project's region must offer volume backups.
- Your subscription must be active. While a subscription is paused, you can't create plans, run them on demand, retry failed volumes, or restore.
- You can assign volumes when you create the plan or later. Each volume can belong to one plan at a time.
Create a plan
In the console, go to StorageBackup Center.
Select New backup plan.
Under Source & plan, enter a Plan name, and optionally a Description.
Under Schedule, select an Interval: On-demand, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
For a weekly plan, select the Day of week. For a monthly plan, enter the Day of month. For every plan except an on-demand one, select the Run time (UTC). The line under the fields shows the resulting schedule, such as Every day at 02:00 UTC.
Under Retention, enter the Retention (days). Keep Incremental backups turned on, or turn it off.
Optional: under Volumes to protect, select the volumes to protect, or use Select by tag. See Assign volumes to a plan.
Check the summary on the right, and select Create plan.
The console opens the list of backup plans, Backups. The new plan is Enabled. Creating a plan doesn't start a backup: its first run starts at the first scheduled time after you created it. An on-demand plan runs only when you run it.
The summary on the right shows the number of volumes, the schedule, the retention, and an estimate of the stored size: the number of recovery points that the retention window keeps, times the size of the selected volumes. When a price is published in your region, it also shows an estimated monthly cost.
Plan settings
| Setting | Rules |
|---|---|
| Plan name | 1 to 255 characters. It can't start or end with a space, and it can't contain line breaks or other control characters, or characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane, such as most emoji. |
| Description | Optional. Up to 1,024 characters. |
| Interval | Daily by default. On-demand: the plan runs only when you run it. |
| Day of week | Weekly plans only. Sunday by default. |
| Day of month | Monthly plans only. 1 to 28, so that the plan runs every month. |
| Run time (UTC) | Hours and minutes in UTC, 02:00 by default. The console offers minutes in 15-minute steps; the API accepts any minute. When your account's time zone isn't UTC, the console also shows the time on your clock. |
| Retention (days) | 1 to 3,650 days, 30 by default. Each recovery point is deleted this many days after it's captured. It's a period, not a number of copies. |
| Incremental backups | On by default. When it's off, every run takes a full backup. See Full and incremental backups. |
| Volumes | Optional. A volume that's in another plan is shown with that plan's name and can't be selected. If one selected volume is refused, the plan isn't created. |
Change a plan's schedule or retention
In the console, go to StorageBackup Center.
On the plan's row, open the Row actions menu, and select Edit schedule.
In Edit plan, change the name, the description, the Interval, the day, the Run time (UTC), the Retention (days), or Incremental backups.
Select Save schedule.
On the plan's page, the same action is Edit schedule.
- The next run is recalculated from the new schedule. A paused plan gets its next run when you resume it.
- A new retention window also applies to the recovery points that the plan already holds. When you shorten it, the dialog warns you: Shortening retention also re-dates the recovery points this plan already holds; points past the new window are deleted on the next sweep.
- A change to Incremental backups applies to future runs.
Run a plan now
In StorageBackup Center, open the plan's Row actions menu, and select Run now.
On the plan's page, the same action is Run now.
The run backs up every volume that's assigned to the plan. A plan has at most one run in progress, so a new run is refused while another one is in progress. You can also run a paused plan. To follow the run, see Backup runs and incremental copies.
Pause and resume a plan
Open the plan's page: in StorageBackup Center, select the plan.
Select Pause. To start the schedule again later, select Resume.
While a plan is Paused:
- No scheduled runs start. You can still run the plan on demand.
- Its volumes stay assigned, so they can't join another plan.
- Its recovery points stay restorable. Each one is still deleted when its retention window ends.
When you resume the plan, its next run is the next scheduled time. Scheduled times that passed while the plan was paused aren't made up.
Delete a plan
Caution
After you delete a plan, you can no longer view or restore its recovery points, in the console or through the REST API. They're kept, and billed, until each one's retention window ends, and then they're deleted. If you might need them, pause the plan instead.
Open the plan's page.
Select Delete.
Read the confirmation, and select Delete.
The plan's volumes are released, so they can join another plan.
Read-only plans
A project can have one read-only plan, labeled Backups migrated from the previous platform (read-only) on its page. It holds volume backups that no backup plan made: the backups that existed when the project was migrated, and backups made directly through the OpenStack API. You can restore from its recovery points, but you can't edit, run, pause, resume, or delete it, or assign volumes to it. The platform doesn't delete its recovery points on its own, and a volume that has backups only in this plan counts as unprotected.
Troubleshooting
| Message | Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Volume backups are not available in this region. | The project's region doesn't offer volume backups. | Create the plan in a project whose region offers them. |
| "This subscription is paused; no new resources can be provisioned until it is resumed." on the form for a new plan | The subscription is paused. The REST API returns the same message when it refuses to create a plan, run a plan, retry failed volumes, or restore. | Create the plan again after the subscription is resumed. |
| Couldn't run “<plan>” — check the plan state | Another run of the plan is in progress, the subscription is paused, or the project's region no longer offers volume backups. | Wait until the current run finishes, or run the plan again after the subscription is resumed. See What starts a run. |
| This plan holds your backups migrated from the previous platform and is read-only: it cannot be edited, run, paused or deleted. You can still restore from its backups. | The plan is a read-only plan of migrated backups. | Restore from its recovery points, and protect the volumes with a plan of your own. |