How does AWS Backup PITR work for Amazon RDS?

Resolution

When you schedule an AWS Backup job to run within one hour of the Amazon RDS automated backup or maintenance window, the job might fail. This is because Amazon RDS activity takes precedence over jobs that you create in AWS Backup.

You might receive an error message similar to one of the following:

• "Backup job could not start because it is either inside or too close to the weekly maintenance window configured in RDS instance."
• "Backup job could not start because it is either inside or too close to the automated backup window configured in RDS instance."

To avoid these errors, turn on continuous backups for your Amazon RDS database in AWS Backup. For more information, see RDS.

Note: It's a best practice to use a maintenance window to turn continuous backups on or off. However, also note that turning continuous backups on or off causes downtime on the RDS DB.

When you turn on continuous backups for your Amazon RDS database, the following changes occur:

• AWS Backup controls and manages the RDS DB backups. You can't make changes to the backup configuration from the Amazon RDS console. You must make all changes in the AWS Backup plan associated to the RDS DB backup.
• AWS Backup intelligently schedules RDS automated snapshots. AWS Backup evaluates all backup and maintenance windows to determine the best time to take the automated snapshot.

To turn off continuous backups, see Managing continuous backup settings in Supported services and applications for PITR.

When you turn off continuous backups for your Amazon RDS database, the following changes occur:

• Amazon RDS controls and manages the RDS DB backups. You can make changes to the backup configuration from the Amazon RDS console.
• AWS Backup calls the ModifyDBInstance API and reboots the RDS DB to register the changes.

Important: AWS Backup jobs might still fail when you turn on continuous backups and the job is within one hour of the Amazon RDS backup or maintenance window. If this issue occurs, then change the maintenance window to another time.