Automate AWS Lightsail Backups

Automate lightsail instance and database backups using these AWS Lambda functions:

backup_instance.js for instance backups
backup_database.js for relational database backups

Make sure that you set the required environment variables:

INSTANCE_NAME or RELATIONAL_DATABASE_NAME
BACKUP_DAYS_MAX: keep the last BACKUP_DAYS_MAX daily backups
BACKUP_WEEKS_MAX: keep at least BACKUP_WEEKS_MAX weekly backups
BACKUP_MONTHS_MAX: keep at least BACKUP_MONTHS_MAX monthly backups
LIGHTSAIL_REGION: the region where your lightsail resource is located (e.g. us-east-1)

Setup

These are beginner-friendly instructions; if you know what you're doing feel free to skim :)

Create new IAM policy: lightsail-snapshots

Head over to the AWS IAM console
Find Policies in the sidebar and click on Create Policy
Click on the JSON tab and paste this:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "lightsail:GetInstanceSnapshot",
                "lightsail:CreateRelationalDatabaseSnapshot",
                "lightsail:GetRelationalDatabaseSnapshot",
                "lightsail:DeleteInstanceSnapshot",
                "lightsail:GetRelationalDatabaseSnapshots",
                "lightsail:GetInstanceSnapshots",
                "lightsail:DeleteRelationalDatabaseSnapshot",
                "lightsail:CreateInstanceSnapshot"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Click Review Policy, and use the name lightsail-snapshots, and click Create Policy.

Create IAM role: lightsail-snapshots-role

In the IAM console, find Roles in the sidebar and click on Create Role
Select Lambda in the services list and click Next: Permissions
Use the search field to find and add AWSLambdaBasicExecutionRole and lightsail-snapshots
Click Next: Review, use the name lightsail-snapshots-role, and click Create Role

Create Lambda functions

We need to create a lambda function for each instance and database that we want to backup automatically:

Head over to the Lambda console and click Create Function
Use the Author from Scratch option, give the function whatever name you want, use the Node.js 10.x runtime, select Choose an existing role > lightsail-snapshots-role, and click Create Function.
In the designer section, click Add trigger, select CloudWatch Events, select Create a new rule, give the rule whatever name you want, enter rate(1 day) for the Schedule Expression, make sure Enable Trigger is selected, and click Add.
In the function code section, open the index.js file, remove any existing code from this file, and paste the contents of backup_instance.js to use this function for instance backups or backup_database.js for database backups.
Add the required environment variables (see the comment at the top of backup_instance.js or backup_database.js)
Set the timeout to 5 minutes, set reserve concurrency = 1, and click Save.

Tada! It's setup. Make sure that you test it.

License

Apache 2.0