What is the "Automated backups" tab in AWS RDS console on Aurora engines?

Question

I have 7 day backups enabled on my RDS cluster. I can visit the "Snapshots" tab and see 8 snapshots (today + previous 7 days). I can restore to a specific point in time, all works well.

The next tab down, Automated backups, is confusing. When I visit this tab, it shows 0 backups.

The FAQ on this topic confuses me further, as it says automated backups and database snapshots are "two different methods":

When automated backups are turned on for your DB Instance, Amazon RDS automatically performs a full daily snapshot...

In reality, it seems that "automated backups" just refers to the automated snapshots that are taken + the binary log that allows you to restore to point-in-time. So what is the Automated backups tab on the RDS console?

Answer 1

I'm using Aurora as my engine. I got a response from AWS support that explains why this tab is empty for Aurora DBs:

Aurora Cluster stores its data in a cluster volume and you cannot disable automated backups on Aurora cluster. During backup, RDS Aurora backs up your cluster volume automatically and retains restore data for the length of the backup retention period. Aurora backups are continuous and incremental therefore you can quickly restore to any point within the backup retention period. Aurora does not need the binary logs to replicate data within a DB cluster or to perform point in time restore (PITR) [1].

...in RDS Aurora we take the cluster volume snapshot and it's a continuous operation and we take incremental changes as well continuously, so this will not be visible in the Automated backups tab in the AWS console, but will be present in the Snapshots Tab.

Answer 2

Automated backups enables daily backups plus point in time restores. So you don't have to restore to the last snapshot, you can restore the database as at any point in time. I assume it does something with transaction logs.