Snapshots

Create manual and automatic backups of your compute machines.

Overview

We highly recommend Snapshots as a great way to store a version of your machine should you ever need a backup. You can take Snapshots manually and also enable the Auto-Snapshot feature.

A machine Snapshot is a record of a running virtual machine at a time. When you take a Snapshot of a Machine, its storage information (the data on the hard drive) is saved. Where necessary, I/O is temporarily halted. At the same time, the Snapshot is being taken to ensure that a self-consistent disk image can be captured. You can then revert to that Snapshot whenever you like.

Unlike Templates, Snapshots can be created without first shutting down the machine. Also unlike Templates, Snapshots are destroyed when the corresponding machine is destroyed.

Manual Snapshots & Auto-Snapshot

Manual Snapshots

Manual Snapshots can be taken at any time from within the console. This is useful when making a risky change that you may want to undo.

To take a Snapshot, click on the Snapshots tab, set any desired name, leave the default, and click the Create Snapshot button. Here you can modify your auto-snapshot frequency and take a new Snapshot by naming it (the default date) and clicking Create Snapshot.

Auto-Snapshots

Auto-Snapshot will take a Snapshot for you automatically and store a pre-determined number of Snapshots. For example, you can set your machine to take a Snapshot once a week and keep up to two of the most recent Snapshots.

Auto-Snapshot can be enabled at machine creation and can be added, edited, and removed on the machine's page in your console. To disable or modify the timing of Auto-Snapshot, navigate to the machine, and click on the Snapshots tab.

Reverting to a Snapshot

Reverting to a snapshot will restore the machine to the state it was in at the point in time when the Snapshot was created. All changes made to the machine since the Snapshot was taken will be discarded, and the current state of the machine will be lost.

To revert to a Snapshot, go to your machine's page in your console, scroll down to the Snapshot section, and choose the Snapshot you'd like to roll back to. Note: This is not reversible.

Snapshot Pricing

Snapshots are billed per-second. Pricing is listed per month based on size:

Size	50GB	100GB	250GB	500GB	1TB	2TB
Price	$1	$1.20	$1.40	$2	$4	$8

Charges accrue for as long as the Snapshot exists.