AWS Backups & Maintenance

So you’ve set up your WordPress site on AWS and now you just need to know how to keep it safe, secure, and up-to-date.

Fortunately, just getting the server set up was the hard part.

Monthly Maintenance

Since AWS is entirely self-managed, it’s up to you to keep your instance updated and secure. That’s a lot of responsibility, so I recommend setting up a calendar alert on your phone and/or computer so that you go through the motions at least once a month.

AWS Backups

Backups in AWS are surprisingly simple. To create a backup, you simply make a “Snapshot” of your instance.

1. Log into your AWS Console
2. Go to your EC2 dashboard
3. Go to your Volumes tab.
4. Select one of your volumes to back up.
5. Select the “Actions” button, and click “Create Snapshot.
   
6. Enter a backup name and description. You can’t change the description later, so make it count.
   

That’s all there is to it.

Note that Snapshots only save your EBS volume… akin to a hard drive backup. This is perfect for WordPress, but keep in mind that Snapshots don’t save memory state (also called “Ephemeral storage”), so if you are doing something more advanced than WordPress, keep this in mind.

AWS Updates

To update your server, you simply need to log in and run this simple command…

$ sudo yum update

You may be asked to confirm a download. If so, just hit Y to accept and wait for the server to do it’s thing. That’s it.

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