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Export a database snapshot

You can obtain a periodic snapshot of your production or non-production database for the following purposes:

  • To extract data locally for your reporting or data warehousing requirements.
  • To restore the snapshot to a database cluster in your own AWS account and then to edit it. For example, by masking the PII data.
  • To internally test your applications against the database schema.

After editing a snapshot, you can import only the modified production snapshot back into your non-production (development or pre-production) star system. You can't import a snapshot of a non-production database.

Note:

Snapshot export can only happen when your planet is the only planet assigned to an RDS cluster. To ensure that this assignment remains individual and no other planet is added to the RDS cluster, Guidewire recommends that the RDS cluster is dedicated. For details, see RDS cluster assignment.

To enable snapshot for a planet, contact Guidewire.

The following rules apply for exporting database snapshots:

  • Guidewire provides the database snapshots daily or weekly.
  • Guidewire shares the snapshot with your AWS account, and you can typically access it within an hour of the export.
  • You must copy the snapshot once it becomes available for your use.
  • Guidewire shares only temporary snapshots and deletes them periodically.
  • You are responsible for managing AWS resources that you create in your AWS account using the Guidewire shared snapshots.

Enable snapshot export​

To export snapshots of databases, you must:

  1. Exchange information with Guidewire.
  2. Check if your planet is snapshot-enabled.

Exchange information with Guidewire​

To enable snapshot export, you must exchange information with Guidewire in the following way:

  1. Submit a request in Guidewire Community to enable snapshot export for Cloud Platform.

    Provide the AWS account number where the snapshot is to be shared. The snapshot is shared with that AWS account and will be available in the same AWS region as the planet containing the database to be exported.

  2. Guidewire provides you with the following information:

    • The AWS KMS encryption key with which the snapshot is encrypted.
    • The AWS Account ID of your development planet. The modified and masked copy of the snapshot will become available for restore in this planet.
    • The client ID and client secret for importing the modified and masked copy of the snapshot.

Check if your planet is snapshot-enabled​

To check if your planet is snapshot-enabled, go to InsuranceSuite infrastructure settings and check the snapshot status.

Access the exported snapshot​

The exported database snapshot is shared to your AWS account. To access the data in the exported production database snapshot:

  1. Make a copy of the snapshot.
  2. Restore the snapshot copy to a database cluster in your AWS account.

To access the exported snapshot, see Sharing encrypted snapshots for Amazon RDS in AWS documentation.

After you have a copy of the snapshot, you can restore that snapshot to a database cluster in your AWS account. You can then query and edit the data.

Import a database snapshot​

After you restore an exported snapshot to your AWS database cluster and mask its data, you can import it back to Cloud Platform, to the Database Backups app.

Important:

You can import only a masked snapshot of a production database and only into the non-production (development or pre-production) star system. Then, you can restore the modified snapshot to a non-production (development or pre-production) planet for testing and development.

An imported snapshot must follow these guidelines:

Warning:

If you don't follow these guidelines, the import of a database snapshot can fail, and your data might be corrupted or insecure.

  • Mask all the PII data.

    A database snapshot contains personally identifiable information (PII). Before you import a modified database snapshot back to your planet, you must ensure that all the PII data is masked.

  • No schema changes.

    You can't drop, add, or edit any tables. The schema of the imported database must be identical to the schema in the exported snapshot.

  • No database engine version upgrades.

    You can't upgrade the version of the database engine in your AWS account. The database engine that you import back to Cloud Platform must be at the same version as the database engine that you exported. Also, ensure that AWS doesn't upgrade the database engine automatically.

    For example, if you export a database with engine at version v13.9 and try to import a database with engine at version v13.18, the database engine version mismatch will cause a database drop during regularly scheduled Cloud Platform maintenance windows.

  • No security changes.

    You can't change any data affecting users, roles, or permissions for the application. The security information in the imported database must be identical to the information in the exported snapshot.

  • Import only the production database snapshots.

    You can export database backups from production, pre-production, and development planets to your AWS database cluster. But you can import only the production database snapshots. Snapshots of pre-production and development planets won't be imported to the Database Backups app in Cloud Platform.

To import a database snapshot:

  1. Make a snapshot of your masked database.
  2. Share the modified snapshot with Guidewire.
  3. Import the masked snapshot.

Make a snapshot of your masked database​

To make a snapshot of the masked database backup:

  1. In a web browser, open your AWS RDS Management Console.

  2. Take a snapshot of your database.

    Ensure that the database snapshot is masked.

    Note:

    Encrypt the snapshot using the same AWS KMS encryption key that was used to encrypt the original exported snapshot.

  3. Make a copy of that snapshot.

    Ensure that the database engine version doesn't change.

Share the modified snapshot with Guidewire​

To share the masked snapshot with Guidewire from the AWS RDS Management Console:

  1. On the Snapshots page, in the Manual tab, locate the snapshot to import.

  2. Select the checkbox for the snapshot to import.

  3. In the Actions menu, select Share snapshot.

  4. Enter the AWS account ID.

    This is the AWS account number for your development planet that was provided to you.
    For DB snapshot visibility, select Private.

  5. Select Save.

Import the masked snapshot​

To import the masked snapshot and make it available for restores in the Database Backups app in the non-production star system:

  1. Authenticate to the Database API with the following scopes:

    • dbservice.snapshots.write
    • tenant.{tenant}

    For details, see Get started in Database API documentation.

  2. Send a POST request to the Database API to perform the import.

    For details, see Import a masked production backup in the Database API documentation.

  3. (Optional) To check if the snapshot import is completed, send a GET request to the Database API.

    For details, see Check if the import of a masked backup is completed in the Database API documentation.