You want backups. You don’t want headaches. AWS has a tool for that: EC2 Lifecycle Manager.
It creates EBS snapshots every 7 days and only keeps the last 4. Clean. Automated. AWS-native.

Step 0 – Prerequisites

Before we start clicking:

  • Your EC2 instance uses EBS volumes.
  • Volumes are tagged (this is how AWS knows what to back up).
  • You have IAM permissions to manage DLM (no perms, no party).

Step 1 – Tag Your Volume

Open the AWS Console → EC2 → Volumes.
Find the volume you want to back up (probably the one running your Docker container).
Add a tag:

Key: Backup
Value: True

This tag is your magic marker. Lifecycle Manager will only back up volumes with it.

Step 2 – Create a Lifecycle Policy

  1. Go to EC2 → Lifecycle Manager (or just search “Lifecycle Manager”).
  2. Click Create Lifecycle Policy.
  3. Policy type: EBS Snapshot Policy.

Step 3 – Configure the Policy

Target Resources

  • Resource type: Volume
  • Resource tags:
Key: Backup
Value: True

Schedule

  • Name: WeeklyBackup
  • Frequency: Every 7 days
  • Start time: 2:00 AM UTC (or whenever traffic is lowest)
  • Retention type: Count
  • Retain: 4 snapshots

Now AWS will do the work: one snapshot a week, keep only the last 4.

Done

You’ve built a hands-free, AWS-native backup strategy.
No scripts. No cron jobs. No “oops I forgot.”
Just 4 clean, rotating snapshots like clockwork.