You are working as an AWS Architect for a retail company using AWS EC2 instance for a web application. The company is using Provisioned IOPS SSD EBS volumes to store all product database.
This is a critical database & you need to ensure appropriate backups are accomplished every 12 hours. Also, you need to ensure that storage space is optimally used for storing all these snapshots removing all older files. Which of the following can help to meet this requirement with the least management overhead?

Answer options:

A.Manually create snapshots & delete old snapshots for EBS volumes as this is a critical data.
B.Use Amazon CloudWatch events to initiate AWS Lambda which will create snapshot of EBS volumes along with deletion of old snapshots.
C.Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager to schedule EBS snapshots and delete old snapshots as per retention policy.
D.Use Third party tool to create snapshot of EBS volumes along with deletion of old snapshots.

Correct Answer – C
Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager can be used for creation, retention & deletion of EBS snapshots. It protects critical data by initiating backup of Amazon EBS volumes at selected intervals, along with storing & deletion of old snapshots to save storage space & cost.
Option A is incorrect as this will result in additional admin work & there can be a risk of losing critical data due to manual errors.
Option B is incorrect as for this we will need to do additional config changes in CloudWatch & AWS Lambda. Also, AWS Lambda would need a script to create snapshots which can be an overhead
Option D is incorrect as this will result in an additional cost to maintain a third-party software.
For more information on Automating Amazon EBS Snapshot Lifecycle, refer to the following URL,
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/snapshot-lifecycle.html