AWS Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) setup for automated EC2 backups

Step 1: Choose “Custom policy” (as shown)

Keep:

• Custom policy → selected

• Policy type → EBS snapshot policy
  Then click Next step 🟧

Step 2: Target Resource Type

• Resource type: Select Volume

• Target resource tags:
  Add the tag you used on your EC2 volume, for example:

  • Key: Backup

  • Value: Daily

Only the volumes with this tag will be backed up automatically.

Step 3: Configure Schedule

• Schedule name: Daily-EC2-Backup (or Weekly if preferred)

• Frequency: Every 24 hours (for daily) or Every 7 days (for weekly)

• Start time: Choose off-peak (e.g., 02:00 UTC)

• Retention type: “Count”

• Retain: 7 snapshots (automatically delete older ones)

Enable these options:

• ☑ Copy tags from source

• ☑ Exclude boot volumes (optional — keep unchecked if you want full backups including OS)

Step 4: IAM Role

If this is your first lifecycle policy:

• Choose “Create new role for this policy”
  AWS will auto-generate permissions for DLM to create/delete snapshots.

Step 5: Review and Create

• Review your policy summary (target tag, schedule, retention, IAM role)

• Click Create Policy

Verification

After 24 hours (or at next schedule), go to:
👉 EC2 → Snapshots
You’ll see entries like:

“Created by EC2 Lifecycle Policy: Daily-EC2-Backup”

That confirms your automation works.