Knowledge Base
Storage
VM Snapshots
10 min
overview although system snapshots include all vms and allow for restoring individual vms, vm level snapshots allow for customizing schedules and retention rules per individual virtual machine (for example, it may be desirable to capture more frequently or retain snapshots longer for certain vms) additionally, vm level snapshots provide the option for a quiesced snapshot quiesced snapshots typical (non quiesced) snapshots are comparable to restoring a vm after an abrupt power loss or system crash the filesystem may be mid write and databases mid transaction most modern operating systems can recover from this state automatically, but additional filesystem checks or database recovery steps may be required to return the system to a clean, consistent state quiesced snapshots, by contrast, are taken after the operating system is briefly paused and given time to flush i/o, create database checkpoints, and write pending logs the result is a snapshot captured from a clean, consistent point in time this approach is significantly safer for critical workloads—especially databases—because restores start from a known good state without requiring crash recovery vm snapshots schedule vm snapshots by default, vm level snapshots are not configured vms do not necessarily need a snapshot profile defined because system snapshots automatically include restorable snapshots for each vm however, you way wish to assign a snapshot profile to an individual vm in order to provide a different schedule for example, it may be desireable to capture more frequent snapshots and/or retain snapshots longer for certain vm's (like database servers) from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click edit snapshot profile select your desired snapshot profile click submit to configure a snapshot profile, see docid 1b6gfidgmbvynrtmitbo1 manual vm snapshot from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click snapshots > take snapshot enter a name for the snapshot (optional), enter a description (optional), toggle docid\ dd3o9ejgxtw6geat0vejp set expires click submit restore vm from snapshot to restore an individual vm from a system snapshot, it must first be imported from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click snapshots > system snapshots select the desired system snapshot (location = provider) from the left menu , click request from provider click yes to confirm after the process is confirmed, tranferring the snapshot to your tenant can take up to a minute (depending on the size delta of the snapshot) once transferred the snapshot will display as a local snapshot and can be used for vm restores restore vm (overwrite existing) power off existing vm from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click actions > power off click yes to confirm (optional), take temporary snapshot consider taking a temporary snapshot of the vm prior to any restoration this allows you to restore the vm back to before the restoration, if necessary from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click snapshots > take snapshot enter a name for the snapshot (optional), enter a description set expires click submit restore vm from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click snapshots > snapshots select the desired snapshot from the left menu , click restore over source click proceed restore vm (clone) power off existing vm from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click actions > power off click yes to confirm (optional), take temporary snapshot consider taking a temporary snapshot of the vm prior to any restoration this allows you to restore the vm back to before the restoration, if necessary from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click snapshots > take snapshot enter a name for the snapshot (optional), enter a description set expires click submit restore vm from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select the desired vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click snapshots > snapshots select the desired snapshot from the left menu , click restore to new enter a name for the vm configure additional options (if desired) click submit restoring data from vm drive to avoid issues running both a restored clone and the source vm simultaneously, cloned vm drives can be mounted to a different vm to access restored data without powering on the clone from the top menu , click virtual machines > list select a separate source vm from the left menu , click view from the left menu , click drives from the left menu , click new (optional), enter a name for the cloned drive set media to clone disk set media file to the raw file from the restored vm drive click submit you can now access this separate source vm and navigate the cloned vm's filesystem