Amazon Lightsail

Create your AWS credentials

In order for SimpleBackups to manage your Amazon Lightsail Snapshots, a IAM Users to be created with the right policies.

We will create a custom policy first to allow us to manage your Amazon Lightsail Snapshots. The policy will include the least required permissions to manage snapshots.

Create a custom Lightsail policy for snapshots

• Connect to your AWS Console

• Head to IAM/Policies management page

• Click on "Create policy"

• Click on JSON and paste the custom policy below:

For your reference, here is the policy to copy and paste:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "SimpleBackupsLightsailSnapshots",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "lightsail:GetInstance",
                "lightsail:GetInstances",
                "lightsail:GetInstanceSnapshot",
                "lightsail:GetInstanceSnapshots",
                "lightsail:CreateInstanceSnapshot",
                "lightsail:DeleteInstanceSnapshot",
                "lightsail:GetDisk",
                "lightsail:GetDisks",
                "lightsail:GetDiskSnapshot",
                "lightsail:GetDiskSnapshots",
                "lightsail:CreateDiskSnapshot",
                "lightsail:DeleteDiskSnapshot",
                "lightsail:TagResource",
                "lightsail:UntagResource",
                "lightsail:CopySnapshot"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

• Click on "Next: Tags" then "Next: Review"

• Give the policy a name, "LightsailSnapshotsPolicy" then click on "Create policy"

Create a Lightsail user for snapshots

• Head to IAM/Users management page

• Click on "Add users"

In the "Add user" form fill in information shown below:

Step 1: Set user access

• Define a name to your user.

• Choose "Access key - Programmatic access" for "Select AWS Credential type".

Step 2: Attach policy to user

• Select "Attach existing policies directly" and select "LightsailSnapshotsPolicy" (we created in the earlier step).

• Select "Create user without a permission boundary" in the "Set permissions boundary" section.

Step 3: Finalize user creation

• You don't have to add any specific tag, just click "Next".

• Review and create the user.

Step 4: Copy your access and secret keys

Copy your "access key id" and secret "access key".

Connect AWS Lightsail Account to SimpleBackups

With this done, you now have a IAM User with an access key and secret that we'll be able to use in SimpleBackups to automate your Amazon Lightsail Snapshots.

1. Log in to your Lightsail account and navigate to the Lightsail instance you want to backup. Note which region your Lightsail instance is hosted on.

2. Navigate to SimpleBackups new snapshot job creation page.

3. Click on "Connect a new Provider" and select Amazon Lightsail from the provider dropdown menu.

4. Once you have selected your provider, give it a name and paste in the values for your Key and Secret. Then choose the region where your Lightsail instance is hosted and click on "Save provider."

5. Select your Lightsail instance.

6. Give your snapshot job a schedule, the number of snapshots to retain, and a friendly name you can remember.

That's it! Your AWS Lightsail instance is now set up with SimpleBackups!