Use AWS EC2 Lifecycle Manager to back up EBS volumes via EBS snapshots, every 7 days, and keep only 4.

We're looking to create something robust, automated, and AWS-native.

Step 0 - Prerequisites

• Your EC2 instance uses EBS volumes.
• Volumes are tagged (we’ll use this to target them).
• You have necessary IAM permissions to manage DLM.

Step 1: Tag Your Volume

• Go to EC2 → Volumes
• Find the EBS volume you want to back up (likely the one attached to your EC2 running Docker).
• Add a tag:

Key: Backup
Value: True

Step 2: Create Lifecycle Policy

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

Step 3: Configure Policy

Target Resources

• Target resource types: Volume
• Resource tags:

Key: Backup
Value: True

Schedule

• Name: WeeklyBackup
• Frequency: 7 days
• Start time: Pick a low-traffic time (e.g. 2:00 AM UTC)
• Retention type: Count
• Retain: 4 snapshots