Introduction to EBS Snapshots Archive | Amazon Web Services

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[MrHimanshu]

Curious to know one thing, EBS snapshots are stored incrementally, and you are billed only for the changed blocks stored. EBS Snapshots in the Archive tier are full copies of the block data, i.e. you are billed for all the blocks stored and not just the changed blocks.

For example, if you have a volume that's storing 100 GB of data, you are charged for the full 100 GB of data for the first snapshot. If you have 105 GB of data at the time of the next snapshot, then you are billed only for the additional 5 GB of snapshot storage with the second snapshot. But, in archive tier it will charge 100 GB for first snapshot archive and 105 GB for second snapshot archive(full blocks not only incremental)!

Now question is, for an environment if you have the backup policy setup to take the regular snapshot for EBS of critical system and also a retention(assume set as 180 days), then how EBS archive can help to reduce the cost in this scenario, looks like it's charging more?

Another question, Is this only for standalone snapshots? For example in a backup scenario where we take monthly snapshots, if we move the oldest snapshot to Archive will it break the subsequent incremental snapshots? Or will the act of archiving cause an increase in size of the next incremental snapshot? (In other words, can this be used to reduce the cost of snapshots used as backups, or is it only intended for one-time snapshots)