Automate AWS Lightsail Backups

Automate lightsail instance and database backups using these AWS Lambda functions:

• backup_instance.js for instance backups
• backup_database.js for relational database backups

Make sure that you set the required environment variables:

• INSTANCE_NAME or RELATIONAL_DATABASE_NAME
• BACKUP_DAYS_MAX: keep the last BACKUP_DAYS_MAX daily backups
• BACKUP_WEEKS_MAX: keep at least BACKUP_WEEKS_MAX weekly backups
• BACKUP_MONTHS_MAX: keep at least BACKUP_MONTHS_MAX monthly backups
• LIGHTSAIL_REGION: the region where your lightsail resource is located (e.g. us-east-1)

Setup

These are beginner-friendly instructions; if you know what you're doing feel free to skim :)

Create new IAM policy: lightsail-snapshots

• Head over to the AWS IAM console
• Find Policies in the sidebar and click on Create Policy
• Click on the JSON tab and paste this:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "lightsail:GetInstanceSnapshot",
                "lightsail:CreateRelationalDatabaseSnapshot",
                "lightsail:GetRelationalDatabaseSnapshot",
                "lightsail:DeleteInstanceSnapshot",
                "lightsail:GetRelationalDatabaseSnapshots",
                "lightsail:GetInstanceSnapshots",
                "lightsail:DeleteRelationalDatabaseSnapshot",
                "lightsail:CreateInstanceSnapshot"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

• Click Review Policy, and use the name lightsail-snapshots, and click Create Policy.

Create IAM role: lightsail-snapshots-role

• In the IAM console, find Roles in the sidebar and click on Create Role
• Select Lambda in the services list and click Next: Permissions
• Use the search field to find and add AWSLambdaBasicExecutionRole and lightsail-snapshots
• Click Next: Review, use the name lightsail-snapshots-role, and click Create Role

Create Lambda functions

We need to create a lambda function for each instance and database that we want to backup automatically:

• Head over to the Lambda console and click Create Function
• Use the Author from Scratch option, give the function whatever name you want, use the Node.js 10.x runtime, select Choose an existing role > lightsail-snapshots-role, and click Create Function.
• In the designer section, click Add trigger, select CloudWatch Events, select Create a new rule, give the rule whatever name you want, enter rate(1 day) for the Schedule Expression, make sure Enable Trigger is selected, and click Add.
• In the function code section, open the index.js file, remove any existing code from this file, and paste the contents of backup_instance.js to use this function for instance backups or backup_database.js for database backups.
• Add the required environment variables (see the comment at the top of backup_instance.js or backup_database.js)
• Set the timeout to 5 minutes, set reserve concurrency = 1, and click Save.

Tada! It's setup. Make sure that you test it.

License

Apache 2.0

Copyright 2019 Amit-A