Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager

Name: Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager API
Brand: Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentStorageBackup Recoveryhmac8 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Define and manage Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager policies that automate EBS snapshot and AMI backup schedules with retention rules.

Quickstart

Get started with Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"create a DLM lifecycle policy"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager API.

Define declarative backup schedules for EBS volumes via CreateLifecyclePolicy with target tag selectors

Update retention windows, schedules, and resource targets on an existing policy with PATCH /policies/{policyId}

Disable or re-enable policies during maintenance windows by toggling state on UpdateLifecyclePolicy

Inspect existing policies with GetLifecyclePolicy and GetLifecyclePolicies for inventory and compliance

GET STARTED

Start building with Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use for: Create a daily snapshot policy for production EBS volumes, List all lifecycle policies in this account, Update the retention period on an existing snapshot policy, Disable a lifecycle policy during a maintenance window

Not supported: Does not handle snapshot data movement, cross-region copy outside policy actions, or non-EBS resource types — use for declarative EBS and AMI lifecycle policies only.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager, keeping it validated and agent-ready. Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) automates the creation, retention, and deletion of Amazon EBS snapshots and AMI backups through declarative lifecycle policies. The API exposes a small surface — create, get, update, and delete policies, plus tag operations — that is purpose-built for treating backup schedules as code. Use it when an agent needs to enforce backup posture across many accounts or to programmatically rotate retention windows as compliance requirements change.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Codify EBS Backup Schedules

Replace ad-hoc snapshot scripts with DLM lifecycle policies that target EBS volumes by tag and run on a fixed schedule. CreateLifecyclePolicy defines the cadence, retention, and target resource tags; the policy then runs without further intervention until updated or deleted, ensuring backups are consistent across accounts.

Call CreateLifecyclePolicy with PolicyDetails.ResourceTypes set to VOLUME, a TargetTags filter of Environment=prod, and a schedule of daily snapshots retained for 14 days.

Rotate Retention to Meet Compliance

When auditors increase retention requirements from 14 to 90 days, DLM can update every affected policy in seconds via PATCH /policies/{policyId}. The new retention applies to subsequent snapshots without recreating the policy or losing the existing schedule history.

Call UpdateLifecyclePolicy on policy-0123456789abcdef with PolicyDetails.Schedules[0].RetainRule.Count set to 90 and verify with GetLifecyclePolicy.

Inventory Lifecycle Posture Across Accounts

Run GetLifecyclePolicies in each account and region to build a backup inventory: which workloads are protected, which schedule applies, and which policies are currently disabled. The flat list lets compliance and FinOps teams quickly spot unprotected volumes or over-retained snapshots driving up storage cost.

Call GetLifecyclePolicies, then GetLifecyclePolicy for any policy in DISABLED state to surface gaps.

Agent-Driven Backup Policy Management

An AI agent connected via Jentic can read a compliance change ticket, locate every DLM policy that needs adjusting, and update retention or schedules accordingly. Jentic returns the matching DLM operation and schema so the agent can execute the change with the right PolicyDetails payload and verify it after the update.

Search Jentic for 'update a DLM lifecycle policy', load UpdateLifecyclePolicy, execute it with the new retention, then GetLifecyclePolicy to confirm.

Key Endpoints

8 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for amazon data lifecycle manager, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/policies

Create a new lifecycle policy

GET

/policies

List lifecycle policies

GET

/policies/{policyId}/

Get a specific policy

PATCH

/policies/{policyId}

Update an existing policy

DELETE

/policies/{policyId}/

Delete a lifecycle policy

POST

/tags/{resourceArn}

Tag a lifecycle policy

GET

/tags/{resourceArn}

List tags on a policy

POST

/policies

Create a new lifecycle policy

GET

/policies

List lifecycle policies

GET

/policies/{policyId}/

Get a specific policy

PATCH

/policies/{policyId}

Update an existing policy

DELETE

/policies/{policyId}/

Delete a lifecycle policy

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

AWS access keys for DLM are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Jentic signs each DLM request with SigV4 at execution time and the agent only sees scoped, short-lived access — raw access keys never enter the agent's context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g., 'create a DLM lifecycle policy' or 'change snapshot retention') and Jentic returns the matching DLM operation with its input schema, so the agent can call the right endpoint without browsing AWS documentation.

Time to first call

Direct DLM integration: half a day to a day for SigV4 signing and PolicyDetails JSON construction. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

Amazon Elastic Block Store

Direct snapshot APIs for the volumes that DLM policies back up.

Choose EBS when the agent needs to read or write snapshot blocks directly rather than schedule snapshots.

Alternative

AWS Backup

Centralised backup across multiple AWS services, broader scope than DLM.

Choose AWS Backup when the agent needs unified policies across RDS, DynamoDB, EFS, and EBS, not just EBS and AMI.

Complementary

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

Owns the EBS volumes and AMIs that DLM policies target.

Choose EC2 when the agent needs to manage the underlying volumes or AMIs that DLM is configured to protect.

FAQs

Specific to using Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager?

AWS does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the Amazon DLM API use?

DLM uses AWS Signature Version 4 (HMAC) signing with an AWS access key ID and secret access key. Through Jentic, those credentials live encrypted in the Jentic vault and are injected into signed requests at execution time, so the agent never sees the raw secret access key.

Can I update an existing lifecycle policy without deleting it?

Yes. Call PATCH /policies/{policyId} with the modified PolicyDetails — including schedules and retention rules — and the existing policy is updated in place. The schedule continues without losing history of past runs.

What are the rate limits for the Amazon DLM API?

DLM shares standard AWS service quotas, which are managed per account and region rather than published as fixed per-second limits in the spec. Bulk policy listing should rely on pagination, and ThrottlingException responses should trigger backoff.

How do I create an EBS snapshot policy through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'create a DLM lifecycle policy', load CreateLifecyclePolicy, then execute it with PolicyDetails.ResourceTypes, TargetTags, and a Schedules array. Run pip install jentic to use the async search and execute pattern.

Does this API actually take snapshots, or only schedule them?

The API only schedules and configures policies. Snapshot creation happens automatically inside AWS based on the policy schedule, and the resulting snapshots appear in the EC2 EBS API rather than in DLM responses.