Connecting Compute Cloud VMs and Yandex BareMetal servers to Cloud Backup

If you want to back up your Yandex Compute Cloud instances or BareMetal servers in Cloud Backup, you need them connected VM to the service and properly set up.

You can connect the following to Cloud Backup:

• VMs created from supported Yandex Cloud Marketplace images. The Cloud Backup agent is installed automatically on such VMs.
• VMs created from other images, if those images are supported by the Cyberprotect backup provider. You will need to install the Cloud Backup agent on such VMs manually.
• BareMetal servers running a supported operating system. You can install the Cloud Backup agent on BareMetal servers either manually or automatically when ordering a server.

For more information about connecting to Cloud Backup, see these guides.

For the Cloud Backup connection to work correctly, link a service account (with the backup.editor role for the VM and the baremetal.editor and the backup.editor roles for the BareMetal server) to the resource and configure network access.

After connecting to Cloud Backup, add the VM or the BareMetal server to the backup policy.

You can also link a policy to a VM or BareMetal server when creating the VM/ordering the server. A policy is linked asynchronously after you create and initialize a VM/server and after you install and configure the Cloud Backup agent. This may take up to 10-15 minutes. For more information on automatic linking of policies to VMs, see Linking a Yandex Cloud Backup policy to a VM automatically.

VM and BareMetal server specification requirementsVM and BareMetal server specification requirements

The minimum VM and BareMetal server specification to install and correctly run the Cloud Backup agent is as follows:

• Free disk space:

  • For Linux-based VMs: 2 GB.
  • For Windows-based VMs: 1.2 GB.

• RAM: For backups, 1 GB of RAM is required per 1 TB of backup. The RAM requirement depends on the amount and type of data processed by the Cloud Backup agent.

For faster data backup and recovery, the Cloud Backup agent can consume significant amounts of RAM of the backed up resource, i.e., virtual machine or BareMetal server. The agent can even use up all the available RAM, which in some cases may disrupt the resource's other services and make it impossible to complete the backup or recovery process.

To prevent such issues, limit the amount of data the agent caches in RAM.

Supported Cloud Marketplace images with automatic installation of the Cloud Backup agentSupported Cloud Marketplace images with automatic installation of the Cloud Backup agent

On VMs and BareMetal servers , the Cloud Backup agent is available for automatic installation when you create your VM/order a server using the following Cloud Marketplace images:

Linux-based imagesLinux-based images

Windows-based imagesWindows-based images

Unaided installation on a supported operating systemUnaided installation on a supported operating system

You can install the Cloud Backup agent yourself on a VM or BareMetal server:

If you have issues installing the Cloud Backup agent, contact support.

Updating the operating system kernelUpdating the operating system kernel

Updating the Linux kernel on a VM or BareMetal server connected to Cloud Backup may affect the performance of the Cloud Backup agent: it will not be able to create a backup of the VM/server or recover the VM/server from a backup.

This may affect the agent’s performance, since the SnapAPI module (developed by the backup provider for the agent to work with disks and built by the DKMS framework for a specific Linux kernel) may not update after updating the kernel and may therefore cease to match the kernel version.

To restore the Cloud Backup agent’s performance affected by a Linux kernel update, you need to update the version of the Linux kernel headers DKMS refers to when building the SnapAPI module. Once the kernel header version matches the kernel version, DKMS will rebuild the SnapAPI module for the required Linux kernel version at the next start of the VM or BareMetal server.

To update the Linux kernel header versions, follow these guides: Restoring the Cloud Backup agent on a VM and Restoring the Cloud Backup agent on a BareMetal server.

Service accountService account

Service account is a special account the Cloud Backup agent uses to get registered with the Cyberprotect provider.

When creating a VM you want to configure backups for in Cloud Backup, you need to link to it a service account with the backup.editor role.

When ordering a BareMetal server you want to configure backups for in Cloud Backup, you need to link to it a service account with the baremetal.editor and backup.editor roles.

You can assign the role to an existing service account or create a new service account with required roles.

Network access permissionsNetwork access permissions

For the Cloud Backup agent to be able to exchange data with the backup provider servers, make sure the VM or BareMetal server has network access to the IP addresses of the Cloud Backup resources as per the table below:

To provide network access:

Connection statusesConnection statuses

Use casesUse cases

• Connecting a Yandex BareMetal server to Cloud Backup
• Linking a Yandex Cloud Backup policy to a VM automatically