Where are stored (geographically) AWS RDS Backup

Question

I use AWS and have automatic backup enabled.

For one of our client, we need to know exactly where the backup data is stored.

From the AWS FAQ website, I can see that:

Q: Where are my automated backups and DB Snapshots stored and how do I manage their retention?

Amazon RDS DB snapshots and automated backups are stored in S3.

My understanding is that you can have a S3 instance located anywhere you want, so it's not clear to me where this data is.

Just to be clear, I'm interested by the physical location (is it Europe, US....)

Answer 1

It is stored in the same AWS region where the RDS instance is located.

When you directly store data in S3, you store it in an S3 container called a bucket (S3 doesn't use the term "instance") in the AWS region you choose, and the data always remains only in that region.

RDS snapshots and backups are not something you store directly -- RDS stores it for you, on your behalf -- so there is no option to select the bucket or region: it is always stored in an S3 bucket in the same AWS region where the RDS instance is located. This can't be modified.

The data from RDS backups and snapshots is not visible to you from the S3 console, because it is not stored in one of your S3 buckets -- it is stored in a bucket owned and controlled by the RDS service within the region.