Backing Up Paid (Marketplace) EC2 Instances

Product version: 6.2

Last modified: 9 September 2016

Question

I am creating a backup job for my AWS EC2 instance(s). After selecting an instance in the job wizard, I see a message stating that I may be double charged. What does this mean?

Answer

NAKIVO Backup & Replication allows you to back up AWS EC2 instances. The backup is performed as follows:

  1. A snapshot of the EBS volume(s) attached to the original instance is taken.

  2. Temporary volume(s) are created from the snapshot.

  3. Temporary volume(s) are attached to the Transporter instance.

  4. The data from the temporary volume(s) is backed up.

  5. Temporary volume(s) are detached from the Transporter and removed.

Product code is an instance attribute which is widely used by AWS Marketplace for tracking usage of Marketplace products.

If you are backing up an instance that contains an AWS Marketplace product code, the following happens:

  • AWS automatically injects the product code from the original instance into the Transporter instance.

  • After the backup has completed, the Product Code is automatically removed from the Transporter instance.

As a result, AWS may identify that your account is running two copies of the same paid product and double charge the account for the duration of the backup.

Important

  • The Transporter instance type must be supported by AWS Marketplace product being backed up.

    For example, if the AWS Marketplace product only supports the t2.medium instance type, the Transporter instance must have the same type.
    NAKIVO Backup & Replication is unable to determine the minimum required instance type for an original instance; t2.micro is used by default.
    If this instance type is not supported, instance processing will fail. In this case, edit your Transporter and select an instance type that is supported by the original instance.

  • A Transporter instance must have Platform supported by the AWS Marketplace product being backed up.

    For example, if the original instance has "Windows" as Platform attribute, the Transporter must have the same Platform attribute.
    NAKIVO Backup & Replication will try to determine the platform automatically and deploy the appropriate Transporter instance.