Back Up and Restore TiDB Cloud Premium Data

This document describes how to back up and restore your data on TiDB Cloud Premium instances. TiDB Cloud Premium supports automatic backup and lets you restore backup data to a new instance as needed.

Backup files can originate from the following sources:

• Active TiDB Cloud Premium instances
• The Recycle Bin for backups from deleted Premium instances

View the Backup page

1. On the TiDB Instances page, click the name of your target instance to go to its overview page.

   Tip

   You can use the combo box in the upper-left corner to switch between organizations and instances.

2. In the left navigation pane, click Data > Backup.

Automatic backups

TiDB Cloud automatically backs up your instance data, letting you restore data from a backup snapshot to minimize data loss in the event of a disaster.

Learn about the backup setting

Compared with TiDB Cloud Starter clusters and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters, TiDB Cloud Premium offers enhanced backup capabilities, including longer retention and hourly backup support.

• Backup Cycle determines how frequently backups are created.

  • Premium instances support both daily and hourly backups.
  • The default is hourly backups.

• Backup Retention is the duration for which backups are retained. Expired backups cannot be restored.

  • Premium instances can retain backups for up to 33 days.

• Backup Time is the scheduled start time for backups.

  • For Premium instances, daily backups can be configured to start at a preferred time (in 30-minute intervals), while hourly backups always run on the hour.

Configure the backup settings

To configure backups for a TiDB Cloud Premium instance, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Backup page of your TiDB instance.

2. Click Backup Setting. This will open the Backup Setting window, where you can configure automatic backup options.

3. In Backup Cycle, choose between the Hourly Backup and Daily Backup tabs:

   • Hourly Backup (default):
     • Runs on the hour.
     • You can configure Backup Retention (1–33 days).
   • Daily Backup:
     • Runs at a configurable time in 30-minute intervals.
     • You can configure both Backup Retention (1–33 days) and Backup Time.

4. Click Save to save your settings.

Delete backup files

To delete an existing backup file for your TiDB Cloud Premium instance, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Backup page of your instance.

2. Locate the corresponding backup file you want to delete, and click ... > Delete in the Action column.

Restore

TiDB Cloud provides restore functionality to help recover data in case of accidental loss or corruption. You can restore from backups of active instances or from deleted instances in the Recycle Bin.

Restore mode

TiDB Cloud supports snapshot restore and point-in-time restore for your instance.

• Snapshot Restore: restores your instance from a specific backup snapshot.

• Point-in-Time Restore: restores your instance to a specific point in time.

  • Premium instances: can be restored to any time within the last 33 days, but not earlier than the instance creation time or later than one minute before the current time.

Restore destination

TiDB Cloud supports restoring data to a new instance.

Restore to a new instance

To restore your data to a new instance, take the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Backup page of your instance.

2. Click Restore.

3. On the Select Backup page, choose the Restore Mode you want to use. You can restore from a specific backup snapshot or restore to a specific point in time.

   To restore from a selected backup snapshot, take the following steps:

   1. Click Snapshot Restore.
   2. Select the backup snapshot you want to restore from.

   To restore to a specific point in time for a Premium instance, take the following steps:

   1. Click Point-in-Time Restore.
   2. Select the date and time you want to restore to.

4. Click Next to proceed to the Restore to a New Instance page.

5. Configure your new TiDB instance for restoration. The steps are the same as creating a new TiDB instance.

   Note

   The new instance uses the same cloud provider and region as the backup by default.

6. Click Restore to start the restore process.

   When the restore process starts, the instance status first changes to Creating. After the creation is complete, it changes to Restoring. The instance remains unavailable until the restore finishes and the status changes to Available.

Restore from Recycle Bin

To restore a deleted instance from the Recycle Bin, take the following steps:

1. Log in to the TiDB Cloud console, and then navigate to the TiDB Instances page. In the top-right corner, click Recycle Bin.

2. On the Recycle Bin page, locate the TiDB instance you want to restore:

   • Click the > button to expand instance details.
   • Find the desired backup, click ... in the Action column, and then select Restore.

3. On the Restore page, follow the same steps as Restore to a new instance to restore the backup to a new instance.

Limitations

Manual backups are not supported for Premium instances.