Snapshots

A snapshot saves the state of a disk at one moment. You can roll the disk back to that moment later. Take one before a risky change, such as an upgrade.

Snapshots are stored on the same host as the instance. They do not protect you if that host fails. Use backups for that.

	Snapshots	Backups
Stored	On the instance’s host	On a separate backup server
Restore to	The same instance only	Any instance, or a new one
Kept	Until you restore one, delete them, or terminate the instance	By the backup plan, and after termination

Taking a snapshot

1. Head over to the instance list and open your instance
2. Select the “Snapshots” tab
3. Hit “New Snapshot”
4. Choose the disk, or leave it empty for the boot disk
5. Hit “Finish”

The instance stays online while we take the snapshot.

Restoring a snapshot

1. Head over to the instance list and open your instance
2. Select the “Snapshots” tab
3. Hit “Restore” in the snapshot’s menu

The same list is under “Snapshots” on the “Install” tab.

Danger

Restoring rolls the disk back to the snapshot. Data written after it is lost. A running instance restarts.

Danger

After a restore, we delete all of the instance’s snapshots, including the one you restored. Take a new snapshot if you want to roll back again.

Deleting a snapshot

1. Head over to the instance list and open your instance
2. Select the “Snapshots” tab
3. Hit “Delete” in the snapshot’s menu

Snapshots are also deleted when you terminate the instance.