Redshift Automated Cross-Region Snapshot Copy: Hands-Off Backups to Another Region

Hi everyone, it's Shii-chan! Here's an update that makes Redshift backups much easier!

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

AWS What's New announced automated cross-region snapshot copy for Amazon Redshift.

For both provisioned clusters and serverless workgroups, backups are automatically copied to the target Regions you choose. Copies are continuous and incremental.

The story so far

Previously, you had to start a cross-region copy manually, for example when an outage happened. With this feature, the most recent snapshot is always copied with no manual intervention.

What changes

In an unplanned outage, you no longer need to scramble to kick off a copy.

The feature copies the most recent snapshot available, so you don't have to wait for the next one. It works independently of your local snapshot schedule.

Dive Deep

Setup goes like this:

• Enable the feature for each cluster (or workgroup)
• Choose the destination Region(s)
• Set how long to keep copied automated snapshots in the destination

The retention period applies to automated snapshots; user snapshots stay until you delete them. To restore, use the snapshot restore feature in the destination Region to create a new provisioned cluster or serverless workgroup. Copied snapshots are named with a "copy" prefix.

It is available in all AWS Commercial Regions and the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. The announcement lists no prices; it points to the "Backup and storage" and "Data transfer" sections of the Redshift pricing page.

Wrap-up

• Automated, continuous, incremental cross-region snapshot copy
• The latest snapshot is copied, independent of the local schedule
• Just set the destination Regions and a retention period
• Costs depend on backup storage and data transfer

Great news for Redshift users who care about disaster recovery and business continuity!