Deciding how to back up your AWS-based ArcGIS Server site

To achieve a backup of your Amazon Web Services (AWS)-based ArcGIS Server site, you can use the ArcGIS Server backup and restore utilities, the backups provided directly from Cloud Builder, or Cloud Builder templates. The combination of backup technologies you choose depends on what you need to back up.

What do you need to back up?	What should you use to make the backup?
ArcGIS Server service configurations, server object extensions, registered data store item locations, user and role information, list of machines in the site, clusters and their lists of machines, and log settings	ArcGIS Server backup and restore utilities
ArcGIS Server settings not mentioned above such as caches, logs, Web Adaptor configurations, primary site administrator name and password, and so forth.	Cloud Builder backup
GIS data, instance specs, or third-party software on the SITEHOST instance	Cloud Builder backup
GIS data, instance specs, or third-party software on the SITEHOST instance and additional GIS server instances in the site.	Cloud Builder template

You can use any combination of the above techniques to meet your needs. For example, you might want to mix occasional Cloud Builder backups with more frequent site configuration backups by the ArcGIS Server backup utility. The site configuration backups don’t preserve as much information, but they also don't require downtime and can be stored in a separate physical location in case your instances are corrupted.