CDSB is a Microsoft Windows-based, Amazon EC2 instance that runs natively within AWS and connects to AWS infrastructure using AWS APIs to manage backups and security of other instances. CDSB consists of three parts:
•Web server that manages all the data.
•Database that stores backup related metadata and other information.
•Backup process performing all backup/restore operations.
1.CDSB can back up Amazon EC2 instances into EBS snapshots for Linux instances and into EBS snapshots plus one initial AMI for Windows instances. Apart from backing up CDSB can do basic operations with instances like start, stop, reboot instance either manually or by schedule. You can also manage firewall rules applied to AWS instances, as well as manage AWS WAF WEB ACL’s, rules and all types of conditions.
2.CDSB can back up Amazon EBS volumes not depending on the instance they are attached to. In this case, only EBS snapshots are created.
3.CDSB can back up Amazon RDS databases (including Aurora clusters) using snapshots. Although there is an automatic backup AWS offers, if you need to use snapshots to back up RDS, or if you need to back up databases in sync with instances, this option may be useful.
4.CDSB can back up DynamoDB database tables.
5.CDSB can back up Amazon Redshift clusters with snapshots providing extra layer of protection to the automatic AWS Redshift backup functionality.
6.CDSB instance has to have an instance role attached which includes IAM policies with all necessary permissions to manage AWS infrastructure.
7.CDSB can back up Amazon FSx.
8.CDSB can back up Hyper-V VMs and virtual disks in its own format supporting incremental backups with subsequent restore either back to Hyper-v server or to AWS EC2 instances and data volumes.
9.CDSB can back up VMware ESXi VMs and virtual disks in its own format supporting incremental backups with subsequent restore either back to Hyper-v server or to AWS EC2 instances and data volumes.
10.CDSB can use Microsoft Azure blob storage as a storage for backups.
11.Amazon CloudWatch service is used to track customer EC2 instances’ state changes and put EC2 Instance change descriptions in Amazon SQS.
12.Amazon KMS service is used to work with snapshots of encrypted volumes. CDSB uses minimal required permissions.
13.Amazon WAF service is used for Web Application Firewall service management: WEB ACL’s, rules and all types of conditions.
14.Amazon SNS service is used to manage SNS notifications for sending E-mail and SMS notifications to users. Users get notified about backup alerts and daily reports only in case they subscribe to notifications.
15.Amazon SQS service is used to store customers EC2 instance states changes (to display statistics in the dashboards in CDSB).
16.Amazon IAM service is used to work with IAM role attached to EC2 instances.
17.Amazon CloudFront service is used for binding instances with WAF ACL. CloudFront distribution for instance's DNS is created automatically.
18.Amazon GuardDuty service can be managed from CDSB console, which also provides single-pane-of-glass dashboard with GuardDuty findings and statistics.
19.Amazon S3 is used as a storage for backups from Hyper-V and VMware hosts. Amazon S3/Glacier is used as an inexpensive but slow storage for old backups.