Unable to restore EFS

Hello,

Are you using AWS Backup to restore your EFS? If so here is a good doc to restore it.

Hope it helps 😊

If you're encountering a permissions error while attempting to restore an Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), there are a few potential causes and solutions to consider:

1. IAM Role Permissions: Ensure that the IAM role used for the restore operation has the necessary permissions. The role should have the following EFS actions allowed in its attached IAM policy:

   • elasticfilesystem:Restore
   • elasticfilesystem:CreateFilesystem
   • elasticfilesystem:DescribeFilesystems
   • elasticfilesystem:DeleteFilesystem

   Without these permissions, you may receive an "Insufficient privileges to perform this action" or "Access Denied" error.

2. Backup Vault Access Policy: If you're using AWS Backup and this is your first time restoring from a backup vault, you may need to modify the vault's access policy. By default, EFS backup vaults receive a policy that denies the backup:StartRestoreJob action. To resolve this:

   • Go to the AWS Backup console
   • Navigate to "Backup vaults"
   • Select the vault containing your recovery point
   • Scroll down to the vault Access policy
   • Edit the policy and remove backup:StartRestoreJob from the Statement
   • Save the updated policy

3. CreateFileSystem Permission: If you're seeing an error message stating that you're not authorized to perform the elasticfilesystem:CreateFileSystem action, it means your IAM user or role lacks the necessary permissions to create a new EFS file system. Ensure that your IAM entity has the appropriate permissions to create EFS file systems.

If you've verified these permissions and are still encountering issues, it may be helpful to double-check your IAM policies, ensure you're using the correct IAM role or user, and verify that there are no conflicting policies or service control policies (SCPs) in place that might be restricting your actions.

Remember that when restoring EFS using AWS Backup, a new file system is created rather than overwriting the existing one. This approach ensures that your original data remains intact during the restore process.
Sources
Resolve "Insufficient privileges to perform this action" errors in AWS Backup for EFS restores | AWS re:Post
Restore an Amazon EFS file system - AWS Backup
Troubleshooting Amazon EFS performance issues - Amazon Elastic File System