AWS Backup size for EC2

Question

Hello.

I am using AWS Backup, I have configured a backup plan and rule for EC2 (disk1: 40GB, disk2: 20GB) with 02 days of retention, I understand that first backup will be full, but all following backups will be incrementals, and there is not way to configure a backup full every week, is that correct?
 I see that every day the backup size is 60GB, so I understand that incremental backups do not work. How can I validate if incremental is working, or this is normal behavior, and I should see the size in another way?

How can I estimate the storage for for backups?

Thank you.

Accepted Answer

TLDR: First snapshot is full then forever incremental. AWS hides the size of the snapshot. Your only estimate is the bill.

This is an issue with EBS snapshots, not directly AWS Backup. AWS uses black magic and doesn't tell you what actually happens. You are correct in that the first snapshot of a volume, whether via EBS snapshot or AWS Backup [which is EBS snapshot anyway], will be full and then forever incremental. The size shown for the snapshot is always the full size of the volume. The only way you can get any information is in the Billing dashboard for the total EBS snapshot cost. Snapshots only backup data, then the deltas, and I think there is a form of compression, so, yeah ... black magic.

AWS Backup size for EC2

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