Snapshots

General information

Attention

Be careful when using licensed software. License cloning is not allowed in some cases.

A snapshot is a copy of the file system and data on the volume at a certain point in time. A snapshot is a reference for creating new volumes and can be used as a backup copy or to distribute operating systems and software.

All snapshots are grouped according to the following criteria:

• K2 Cloud snapshots – volume snapshots that K2 Cloud offers;

• own snapshots – snapshots created by the user in the Snapshots subsection;

• shared snapshots – snapshots accessible to the user.

Own and shared snapshots can also include snapshots created during the backup process. To display them in the resource table, enable Show recovery points on the action bar.

Data consistency

You can take a snapshot of a volume even it is attached to a running instance. However, this can result in an inconsistent snapshot.

Read/write operations inside the instance are not blocked, and the RAM may contain cached file system data that has not yet been written to the volume at the time when the snapshot is created. It is important to note that a volume snapshot will only contain data that is present on the volume.

To ensure snapshot consistency, you can stop the instance or flush the cache, pause writing to the respective volume, and run the command to create a volume snapshot.

Billing

Snapshots are charged hourly according to the size of the original volume.

Available quotas

The following default quotas are allocated for snapshots:

• 210 snapshots in each project;

• 45 simultaneously created snapshots in each project.

If necessary, you can increase quotas. To do this, contact the support service via the support portal or by email support@k2.cloud.

Managing snapshots

Creating a snapshot

A snapshot can be created using several methods:

• from any volume, which is available or attached to the instance;

• from an object loaded into bucket;

• automatically when creating an image from an instance.

Creating a snapshot does not impact read/write operations – volumes can be attached, detached, or deleted without waiting for the snapshot to be created.

Creating a snapshot from a volume

To create a volume snapshot:

1. In the top menu of the web interface, select the project and region where you want to create a snapshot.

2. Expand the side menu by clicking .

3. Go to Virtual machines Storage Snapshots. To quickly find the section, you can use the menu search.

4. Click Create.

5. In the window that opens, set the following parameters:

   • in the Volume field, select a volume you want to create a snapshot of;

   • (optional) in the Description field, enter a volume description;

   • (optional) edit the Name tag if necessary (the tag value is populated automatically once the volume is selected).

6. To assign other tags (apart from the Name tag), click Add tag and specify the tag key and value.

7. After setting the parameters, click Create.

Alternatively, you can create a volume snapshot in the Volumes subsection and on the instance page, to which the volume is attached.

Note

A volume snapshot is created immediately, but you can create another snapshot of the same volume only after it is transferred to a storage of snapshots.

Copy a snapshot

Volume snapshot copying is not available in the new web interface yet. Please use the previous version of the web interface.

Set access to a snapshot

A snapshot is private by default and available only within the project in which it was created. If necessary, you can grant other projects the access to the snapshot.

To configure access permissions for a snapshot:

1. In the top menu of the web interface, select the project and region where you want to set access to a snapshot.

2. Expand the side menu by clicking .

3. Go to Virtual machines Storage Snapshots. To quickly find the section, you can use the menu search.

4. Select the desired snapshot in the resource table.

5. Click Set access on the pop-up action bar.

6. In the window that opens, add the projects, which are to be granted access to the snapshot, in the input field. To deny access, click next to the project from which permission should be revoked.

7. To save the permissions, click Apply.

Attention

It is strongly recommended to avoid distributing snapshots with a preset system administrator password. A random password can be generated at the system launch and displayed to a user via a remote console.

Note

Before 02.08.2022, public access to the snapshots could be granted to all authorized K2 Cloud users. If you have public snapshots, you can make them private by clearing the respective checkbox when setting the access to the image. This operation is irreversible: you cannot make the image public again.

Set tags

To add, modify or delete snapshot tags:

1. In the top menu of the web interface, select the project and region where you want to set tags for a snapshot.

2. Expand the side menu by clicking .

3. Go to Virtual machines Storage Snapshots. To quickly find the section, you can use the menu search.

4. In the resource table, find the volume snapshot for which tags should be specified and click on the snapshot ID to go to its page.

5. Open the Tags tab and click Edit to set tags.

6. To add a tag, fill in Key and Value fields. To assign the next tag, click Add tag.

   To modify a tag, edit the required fields (Value and/or Key) of the respective tag.

   To delete a tag, click the icon next to the tag you no longer need.

7. To complete editing, click Save changes.

Deleting a snapshot

You can delete your own snapshot if you no longer need it.

1. In the top menu of the web interface, select the project and region where you want to delete a snapshot.

2. Expand the side menu by clicking .

3. Go to Virtual machines Storage Snapshots. To quickly find the section, you can use the menu search.

4. In the resource table, select a snapshot you want to delete. You can select and delete several snapshots at the same time.

5. Click Delete on the pop-up action bar.

6. In the dialog window, confirm the action.

Note

Deleting a snapshot does not impacts volumes created from it.

Note

To delete snapshots that were created together with an image, delete the image.

Creating a volume from a snapshot

To create a volume from a snapshot:

1. In the top menu of the web interface, select the project and region where you want to create a volume from a snapshot.

2. Expand the side menu by clicking .

3. Go to Virtual machines Storage Snapshots. To quickly find the section, you can use the menu search.

4. Select the desired snapshot in the resource table.

5. Click Create volume on the pop-up action bar.

6. In the window that opens, you can edit the default parameters of the snapshot:

   • availability zone;

   • volume type;

   • volume size;

   • IOPS (only for io2 volumes);

   • Name tag.

   Note

   The throughput is set automatically depending on the volume type and size.

7. To assign other tags (apart from the Name tag), click Add tag and specify the tag key and value.

8. After setting the parameters, click Create.

Snapshot information

General information about available snapshots can be viewed in the resource table in Virtual machines Storage Snapshots.

To open the page of a particular snapshot, click its ID in the resource table in the Snapshots subsection.

The Information tab displays the main snapshot parameters:

• snapshot name (Name tag);

• description;

• project where the snapshot was created;

• creation date;

• size;

• project(s), which can access the snapshot.

Here you can modify the snapshot name (Name tag) and description, and configure access to the snapshot.

The Tags tab displays all tags assigned to the snapshot. You can add new, modify existing, and delete no-longer-needed tags.