Help Center/ Relational Database Service_RDS for MySQL/ User Guide/ Data Backups/ Performing Backups/ Creating a Manual Backup
Updated on 2025-12-18 GMT+08:00
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Creating a Manual Backup

Scenarios

RDS allows you to create manual backups for a running primary DB instance. You can use these backups to restore data.

Constraints and Billing

Table 1 Constraints

Category

Constraints

Billing

CBR not enabled
  • You can create manual backups only when your account balance is no less than $0 USD.
  • When you delete a DB instance, its automated backups are also deleted but its manual backups are retained.
  • Backup speed varies based on how many tables an instance contains. An instance can have a maximum of 500,000 tables.
  • When starting a full backup task, the system first tests connectivity to your instance. If either of the following conditions is met, the verification fails and the system retries the verification: If the retry fails, the backup will fail.
    • The system is performing DDL operations on this instance.
    • The system fails to obtain the backup lock from this instance.
  • Performing backups consumes memory resources. If there are many tables in your instance but the available memory is not enough, your backup task may fail. When this happens, reduce the number of tables or upgrade the instance specifications.
  • Metadata locks will be generated while a backup is being created, which may cause DDL blocking or a replication delay.

Backups are saved as packages in OBS buckets. For the billing details, see How Is RDS Backup Data Billed?

After a DB instance is deleted, the free backup space of the DB instance is automatically canceled. Manual backups are billed based on the space required. For details, see Product Pricing Details.

CBR enabled
  • The backup time is proportional to how much data your instance has. Too much data can decrease the backup efficiency. If you have large amounts of data and want to speed up the backup process, submit a service ticket to enable CBR snapshot backup.
  • After CBR is enabled, snapshot backup is used. Existing automated and manual backups can still be used to restore data.
  • When you delete a DB instance, its automated backups are also deleted but its manual backups are retained.
  • DDL operations cannot be performed when a CBR snapshot is being created. If a DDL operation is being performed, a snapshot will be created after the DDL operation is complete.
  • After CBR is enabled, the next full backup is a snapshot backup. You can use the snapshot backup to restore data.
If CBR is enabled, CBR snapshots are billed as follows:
  • For snapshots created before September 2025: No backup space is provided for free. You are billed for database server backup vaults in CBR on a pay-per-use basis. For details, see How Is CBR Billed?.
  • For snapshots created in September 2025 and later: RDS provides free snapshot backup space equal to the size of your purchased storage space. After the free space is used up, you are billed for CBR snapshots in RDS on a pay-per-use basis. For details, see RDS Pricing Details.

    For example, if you purchase an instance with 40 GB storage space, RDS provides 80 GB backup space for free, including 40 GB for logs and 40 GB for CBR snapshots.

    Figure 1 Storage and backup

Procedure

  1. Click in the upper left corner and select a region.
  2. Click in the upper left corner of the page and choose Databases > Relational Database Service.
  3. On the Instances page, locate the target DB instance and choose More > Create Backup in the Operation column.
  4. In the displayed dialog box, enter a backup name and description. Then, click OK.

    • The backup name must consist of 4 to 64 characters and start with a letter. It can contain only uppercase letters, lowercase letters, digits, hyphens (-), and underscores (_).
    • The description consists of a maximum of 256 characters and cannot contain carriage return characters or the following special characters: >!<"&'=
    • The time required for creating a manual backup depends on the amount of data.

    To check whether the backup has been created, you can click in the upper right corner of the page to check the DB instance status. If the DB instance status becomes Available from Backing up, the backup has been created.

  5. After a manual backup has been created, you can view and manage it on the Backups page.

    Alternatively, click the target DB instance. On the Backups & Restorations page, you can view and manage the manual backups.

  1. Click in the upper left corner and select a region.
  2. Click in the upper left corner of the page and choose Databases > Relational Database Service.
  3. On the Instances page, click the target DB instance.
  4. On the Backups & Restorations page, click Create Backup. In the displayed dialog box, enter a backup name and description and click OK.

    • The backup name can contain 4 to 64 characters and must start with a letter. Only letters (case-sensitive), digits, hyphens (-), and underscores (_) are allowed.
    • The description consists of a maximum of 256 characters and cannot contain carriage return characters or the following special characters: >!<"&'=
    • The time required for creating a manual backup depends on the amount of data.

  5. After a manual backup has been created, you can view and manage it on the Backups page.

    Alternatively, click the target DB instance. On the Backups & Restorations page, you can view and manage the manual backups.

Related APIs

Parent Topic: Performing Backups