Create a snapshot

A snapshot is used to record data on an EBS volume at a specific point in time. As data continues to be written to the EBS volume, snapshots can be created at any time and used as backups.

Note

• After a snapshot is created based on an EBS volume, operations on the EBS volume will not affect the snapshot. In addition, incremental data on the EBS volume will not be backed up to the snapshot.
• A snapshot backs up only the data that has been written to an EBS volume at the point of time when the snapshot is created based on the EBS volume. Data that resides in the memory but has not been written to the EBS volume is not backed up. In other words, when a snapshot is being created based on an EBS volume, the memory may contain data that has not been written to the EBS volume. Such data will not be written to the snapshot and thus cannot be restored by using the snapshot. Therefore, before you create a snapshot based on an EBS volume, we recommend that you shut down the KEC instance to which the EBS volume is attached, or make sure that data in the memory has been written to the EBS volume and data read/write is suspended.
• The first snapshot created for an EBS volume is a full snapshot. Subsequent snapshots created for the same EBS volume are all incremental snapshots.
• The time required to create a snapshot based on an EBS volume depends on the capacity of the EBS volume.
• Automatically created snapshots are all common snapshots.

Procedure

Manually create a snapshot

1. Log in to the EBS console. The snapshot feature is supported only for EHDD volumes and SSD volumes of EBS 3.0.

2. On the EBS tab, find the EBS volume based on which you want to create a snapshot and click Create Snapshot in the Operation column.

3. In the dialog box that appears, enter a name and description for the snapshot and click OK.
   The snapshot is immediately created.

Create automatic snapshots

1. Log in to the EBS console.

2. On the EBS tab, find the EBS volume based on which you want to create automatic snapshots and click Set automatic snapshot policy in the Operation column.

3. In the dialog box that appears, select an automatic snapshot policy based on your data backup requirements and click OK.
   The selected automatic snapshot policy is immediately attached to the EBS volume.

Snapshots will be automatically created for the EBS volume at the specified points in time based on the attached automatic snapshot policy.