I would like to backup my website locally from AWS

Question

I had a dev team code my website and upload it to AWS some time ago. The website has been working, but I now would like to retire it (with a small tear in my eye). Unfortunately the dev team is not around anymore. A lot of work was involved, and for that reason I would like to download all files back to a local drive. It was coded in .NET and hosted on an AWS server in a windows environment. We used EBS to store all the data, and it is running on an EC2.

Of course, I have all the credentials to access the AWS console.

I had a look on AWS documentions, but it seemed like they all assume that you want to have a backup online, not download them on a local drive - so all steps seem to explain how to back them up online. I have read about the EBS snapshot, but I worry it would only save settings, as opposed to all the files used.

Essentially, I just would like to download all the database and code back locally and retire the website.

Update: I think I figured it out, but not sure.

• I right clicked on my AWS instance
• I clicked on connect.

It prompted me to download and use the soft "Remote Desktop Connection".

• I downloaded and opened it,
• filled the Public DNS, username and password (from the encrypted key).

Then it connected to a windows server 2008 environment. From there, I browsed the D:/ and found a folder with my website name and it seems like all the files (I found some product pictures) and DB are there. I see that I can copy paste from that remote desktop to my local desktop. Am I on the right track ?

Answer 1

This is more a Systems Admin question than a programming question, but here's some tips...

• You can backup the whole system by using EBS Snapshots, but those snapshots will stay on AWS -- you can't download them to a computer.
• You could copy files off the EC2 instance (such as the ones you found on the D: drive), but there might be many configurations throughout the server that are required to make the application work. Merely having the files probably isn't enough. You'd need to test that it works, but that would probably take more time than it's worth for you (since you don't need the system anymore).
• You could use the AWS VM Import/Export tools to export the instance as a Virtual Machine, but that only works if it was originally imported this way -- which probably isn't the case.
• You could create ISO files of the disks and download them -- use any standard utility to create the ISO files. Then, you could use the ISO files to restore the disks again in future.

Given that you don't need the system anymore, I'd tend to recommend just copying off the files you can find. They might be capable of recreating the system again in future. However, if you think you'll need the system to keep running again in future, the easiest method is to take EBS snapshots -- the price for storage is minor compared to the time it will save you to get the system working again.