Policy enablement

You can define the frequency and expiration of snapshots by creating a Cloud Snapshot Manager policy.

You can also edit an existing policy at any time. After you create a policy, you can assign it to one or more Cloud Snapshot Manager Protection Plans. You select the resources to be protected during the protection plan configuration.

In the Policy page, you can:

  • Schedule snapshots to be taken on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
  • Specify the retention time for snapshots and set monthly snapshots to never expire. The expiration of a snapshot occurs when it is deleted automatically from the cloud account. Retention of snapshots can be modified at any time before they expire in the Snapshots page.
  • Configure original region, remote region that is also known as cross-region, and cross-account snapshot policies. The policy configuration is applicable only for supported resources. The original snapshots that are taken are stored in the region in which the resource resides. Every Cloud Snapshot Manager policy must have the settings for original region snapshots configured.
  • Configure policy to keep copies of the snapshot of cloud resources in cross-regions. Cross-region snapshots are stored in any region that is selected as part of the policy. The initial snapshot is created in the same region as the resource. After that it can be copied to one or more regions that the cloud account has access to. Cross-region policy is applicable for both AWS and Azure resources.
  • Configure policy to copy snapshots to another secure and restricted AWS account. The account has to be created as a secure DR account in Cloud Snapshot Manager. These cross-account copies are full backups and can be used for disaster recovery in case the primary account is compromised. You can also specify a cross-account alternate region for storing the snapshots in the AWS DR account. Cross-account policy is only applicable for AWS resources.
  • Specify the frequency at which snapshots are to be copied to storage like PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE). You can also set the retention time for the copied snapshots in DDVE after which they expire.
  • Configure a cross-region policy or a cross-account policy or both after first configuring a basic backup policy. In this manner, Cloud Snapshot Manager provides you with the flexibility to have a different policy for cross-regions and cross-accounts.

For AWS cross-region and AWS cross-account snapshots, Cloud Snapshot Manager supports the use of custom encryption keys. For more information about the AWS encryption keys, see Configure AWS custom encryption keys.

To create a policy, see Configure a snapshot policy.