RDS Backups#

One is none, two is one.

Backups are important. We’re going to break things in creative, irreparable ways from time to time, and RDS can automatically back up your database.

Daily backups: Taken during your preferred backup window (you can set this)
Transaction logs: Continuously backed up (enables point-in-time recovery)
Retention period: Configurable (1-35 days for most engines)
Storage: Backups stored in S3, separate from your database instance
Cost: Storage for backups is charged separately (about $0.095 per GB per month)

Cost check: Backups cost money. A 7-day retention period means you’re storing 7 days of backups (at ~$0.095/GB/month). For a 20 GB database that can be ~140 GB of backup storage. Monitor backup costs, and reduce retention or delete snapshots when done.

What’s in a Backup?#

RDS backups include:

Full database snapshot: Complete copy of your database at a point in time
Transaction logs: All changes since the last backup (enables point-in-time recovery)

The combination of full backups plus transaction logs lets you restore to any specific time within your retention period.

Restoring from Backups#

You can restore your database in several ways.

Point-in-Time Recovery#

Restore to any specific time within the retention period:

Uses full backup + transaction logs
Can restore to the exact second before a data loss event
Useful when you know exactly when something went wrong

Restore from Snapshot#

Restore to a specific backup snapshot:

Faster and simpler than point-in-time recovery
Useful for restoring to a known good state
You can also create manual snapshots at any time

Restore to New Instance#

All restores create a new database instance:

Original instance remains unchanged
This means “restoring” is also useful for testing, cloning, or migration
You can restore to test changes before applying to production

Backups are the preferred method for cloning databases. Instead of exporting and importing data manually, just restore from a backup. It’s faster, more reliable, and creates an exact copy. You don’t even need the DB’s credentials to migrate it.