Problem description
When configuring backup policies in Druva CloudRanger, users may observe that adding an Exclude Rule for specific EBS volumes does not prevent those volumes from being backed up when an Include Rule for the parent EC2 instance is active.
Even with explicit EBS exclusion rules in place, all attached EBS volumes continue to be backed up during execution.
Cause
This behavior occurs due to policy evaluation precedence in Druva CloudRanger. Exclude rules only take effect when the same resource type is matched across both include and exclude criteria.
When EC2 is selected as the resource type in an include rule, CloudRanger backs up the entire EC2 instance and all attached EBS volumes as a single unit. Because the include criteria applies at the EC2 level, standalone EBS Volume exclude rules belong to a different resource evaluation layer and are bypassed.
Resolution
To exclude specific non-critical EBS volumes while backing up only required volumes, reconfigure the backup policy using volume-level rules:
Remove any Exclude Rules for EBS volumes from the EC2 backup policy.
Change the Include Rule resource type from EC2 to EBS Volume.
Add only the specific EBS Volume IDs (or specific tags) that require backups to the Include Rule.
Important Restore Behavior:
When backing up individual EBS volumes instead of full EC2 instances, automated full EC2 instance restores are not available. Restores will occur at the EBS volume level only.
To recover the full EC2 instance in a disaster recovery scenario, you must manually launch/rebuild the EC2 instance and attach the restored EBS volumes.
Include and exclude filters
Backup Requirement | Recommended Policy Configuration |
Backup entire EC2 instance (all attached EBS volumes) | Set resource type to EC2 in the Include Rule. |
Back up only specific EBS volumes (to optimize storage/credits) | Set resource type to EBS Volume in the Include Rule and specify target Volume IDs. |
Exclude non-critical data volumes from backup policies | Set resource type to EBS Volume in the Include Rule and include only critical Volume IDs. |
Verification
Login the Druva Console and AWS Workloads
Navigate to Policies.
Select the target policy and confirm the Include Rule resource type is set to EBS Volume instead of EC2.
Run an on-demand backup job for the policy.
Check the Jobs tab to confirm that only the specified EBS Volume IDs were included in the snapshot.