AWS - snapBackup - Snapshot Based Backup for EC2

This script is foundamentally made to take attached EBS volumes of your EC2 Instance and make some snapshots automagically.

You can specify the maximum amount of snapshots you want to retain for a particoular EBS Volume with option -x, if at the end of the process there would be more than the specificied value, the script tries to delete the oldest one.. if resulting amount is still higher than threshold it continues to delete the oldest snapshot till the desired quantity is reached.

You can also specify the minumin number of days that are neede before the script would make a new snapshot of a single volume with option -m.

If CRT and PK files are not provided respectively as 'cert.pem' and 'pk.pem' under directory '/etc/aws' you should specify them both with -C and -K

WARNING 1

If deleting of the last snapshots fails, the script automatically steps to "the snapshot after the last one", and continues.

WARNING 2

At the moment the script is very slow and takes approximately 1-3 minutes to complete.. This is mainly due to the slow answer time of AWS API but we have plans to make things better in future releases.

Help

Usage:
  ./snapback.pl [-a|-h]
Additional options   :
  [-m <days>] [-x <count>] [-C <file>] [-K <file>]
Debug & Help options :
  [-d]

Description:

Options Legend :
  *M* - Mandatory
  *O* - Optional

Options :
-a,  --automagic                *O* Enables Automagic(R) mode.. at
                                    the moment this is the only choice
-m,  --mindays     <days>       *O* Specify minimum amount of days that
                                    have to be passed since last backup
                                         to create a new snapshot
-x,  --maxcount    <number>     *O* Specify the maximum amount of
                                    snapshots for a single EBS volume
-C,  --crtfile     <file>       *O* Specify the AWS certificate file
-K,  --pkfile      <file>       *O* Specify the AWS private key file
-r,  --include-root             *O* Include root devices in snapshot backup
-d,  --debug                    *O* Prints LOTS of debug info on stdout
-h,  --help                     *O* Prints this help screen

Installation details

• install perl-json libs (Debian/Ubuntu: libjson-perl, CentOS/RH:perl-JSON)
• create dedicated user
• download CRT and PK file (.pem format) and place them in your EC2 instance

WARNING These files are very important! Please keep them under strict survellaince (perm 400 or 440) and let them be accessed only by authorized users.

• copy this script under the dedicated user home
• try first execution and look via AWS web GUI if a snapshot is created for every and each "interesting" EBS volume
• put script in crontab and check if it's still working
• wait next auto-backup and check again if it's working
• have fun and take profit \o/
• pay me a beer :3

Requirements

• You will need perl-JSON libraries to execute this script since every and each message from AWS API are exchanged (oh, joy!) via JSON format
• If you have ec2-consistent-snapshot utility installed and available it will be used to create snapshots (to Do)

Note to Cpt. Obvious:

• Perl is a foundamental requirement
• You will also need to be inside you AWS instance when this script is executed

ToDo

• implement configuration files
• expand and add new possible customization options based on user needs
• implement logging
• implement error handling
• implement error moritoring and alerting
• add ec2-consistent_snapshot support if available