Backup your data to Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is a web service that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. It was designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.

On this page:

• What is Amazon S3
• How to backup to Amazon S3
• How to restore from Amazon S3
• Advantages/disadvantages

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What is Amazon S3

Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. If you're looking to backup your data not only on local/network/external drives, but also to an online source, Amazon S3 can be a solution.

Please note Backup4all does not work with Amazon Cloud drive as backup destination.

How to backup to Amazon S3

Steps to follow:

1. Open Backup4all and select File -> New (Ctrl+N).
2. In the Where do you want to save the backup? section, select the Amazon server as backup destination.
3. Enter the Amazon access key ID, the secret access key and the bucket name. Please note: if you have the bucket located in another region than US, you must use another one located in US or create a new backet from Backup4all. Then press Next.
4. On the What do you want to backup page, add the backup sources. Press Next.
5. On the Filter the backup sources page, you can set include/exclude filters for backup sources. Then press Next.
6. On the How do you want to backup page, you can choose the backup type and the encryption.
7. On the When do you want to backup page, you can set the backup job to automatically run on the specified time and days. Press Next.
8. On the Personalize your backup job page, enter a name for the backup in the Backup name field.
9. Press Save -> Save and run.

How to restore from Amazon S3

Steps to follow:

1. Open Backup4all and press the Restore (F7) button. If the backup job does not exist in Backup4all, you must open it from File->Open from, then select Amazon S3 storage. Configure the Amazon account and press Show. Double click the backup catalog to open it.
2. Select the location you want to restore the files to. Original location is selected by default.
3. On the same page, you can choose how do you want to restore.
4. If you select to restore from a specific version, press Next to indicate the version or the date you want to restore the files. Press Next
5. You can also filter the files before the restore.
6. Press Finish to start the restore process.

Advantages/disadvantages

Advantages:

• The Amazon backup destination is cheap and offers a reliable online storage solution.

Disadvantages:

• If you want to browse your backed up files on the Amazon storage, you need a special Amazon Explorer application for that.