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Elastic Compute Service

Basic snapshot operations

Creating snapshots

You can manually create snapshots of your volumes to back up your data at specific points in time. This topic describes the notes and steps for doing so.

Prerequisites

Only ESSD volumes offer the snapshot feature.

You can create snapshots only when the volume is "Available" or "Attached".

If the volume is "Attached", the instance it is attached to must be either "Running" or "Stopped".

The number of snapshots on each volume must not exceed the per-volume limit. Each volume can have up to 256 manual snapshots. If you reach the manual snapshot limit, attempting to take another one will result in an error.

It is not possible to convert an encrypted snapshot to an unencrypted one. The encryption state is irreversible.

Notes

Creating a snapshot takes time. We recommend performing this task during off-peak hours. Do not extend, roll back, or perform any other similar operations on the volume while a snapshot is being created.

By default, a snapshot of a volume is located in the same region and availability zone as the volume itself.

You cannot create two snapshots for a single volume at the same time.

A snapshot backs up the following data:

Data that has already been written to the volume at that point in time.

Data residing in memory that has not yet been written to the volume is not included.

Any data written to the volume during the creation of a snapshot is not saved in that snapshot.

To ensure data integrity, we strongly recommend stopping the instance before creating a snapshot. Alternatively, make sure that all data has been written to the volume and pause read and write operations on the volume. Then, perform the following operations based on your workload.

Workload	Operations
Databases	Before creating a snapshot, run the FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK command to close all open tables and acquire a global read lock on all tables in all databases. After creating the snapshot, run the UNLOCK TABLES command to release the lock.
File systems	Before creating a snapshot, run the sync command to flush in-memory data to the volume, and avoid writing new data while the snapshot is being created.

Billing notes

Snapshots are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis depending on your storage usage and how long you keep them. For more information, see Snapshot billing.

Creating a snapshot from the Volumes page

In the left navigation pane, select "Storage > Snapshots".

Click "Apply for activation" and follow the instructions to enable the snapshot feature.

In the left navigation pane, select "Storage > Volumes".

In the top menu bar, select the project and region where the volume resides.

Click "Create snapshot" in the "Actions" column of the volume.

In the "Create snapshot" panel, set the following parameters.

Parameter	Description
Snapshot name	(Required) Enter a name for the snapshot. Requirements: Length must be between 1 and 128 characters. The name cannot start with "auto" or a space.
Retention time	Choose whether to permanently retain the snapshot or specify how long to keep it. You can set the snapshot retention period anywhere from 1 to 65,536 days. tip The retention period begins when the snapshot is created. The retention period can only be extended, not shortened. To extend the retention period: On the "Snapshots" page, select "... > Extend snapshot retention time" in the "Actions" column of the desired snapshot. Then, enter a value for "Retention time" and click "OK".
Description	(Optional) Provide additional information for the snapshot. It must be between 0 and 255 characters long.
Project	(Optional) Select the project to which the snapshot belongs. tip A project is a virtual concept that comprises a set of resources, users, and roles. It provides a unified view of and access to resources, as well as control over user and role permissions within the project. For more information, see Resource management. If there is no suitable project, click "Create new projects" on the right to go to the IAM console and create a new one.
Tag	A tag is a key-value pair used to identify cloud resources. Tags help you categorize cloud resources by purpose, owner, environment, and other criteria for easy searching and aggregation. To add a tag to a snapshot, click the icon and enter the tag key and value. For more information, see Tag management.

Click "Create snapshot".

Creating a snapshot takes some time. Thank you for your patience. You can track your progress in the "Status" column on the "Snapshots" page. Once the snapshot has been created, you can view it on the "Snapshots" page or on the "Snapshot Chain" tab of the volume details page.

Creating an encrypted snapshot from the Volumes page

In the ECS console, navigate to the Volumes page. Locate the encrypted volume for which you want to create an encrypted snapshot.

Click "Create snapshot" in the "Actions" column of the volume.

On the "Create snapshot" page, confirm the name of the snapshot, the retention period, the project, and the other parameters. Then, click "Create Snapshot".

Creating a snapshot from the Snapshots page

In the left navigation pane, select "Storage > Snapshots".

Click "Apply for activation" and follow the instructions to enable the snapshot feature.

In the top menu bar, select the project and region where you want to create a snapshot.

On the "Snapshots" tab, click "Create snapshot".

In the "Create snapshot" panel, set the following parameters.

Parameter	Description
Select volume	Select the volume for which you want to create a snapshot.
Snapshot name	(Required) Enter a name for the snapshot. Requirements: Length must be between 1 and 128 characters. The name cannot start with "auto" or a space.
Retention time	Choose whether to permanently retain the snapshot or specify how long to keep it. You can set the snapshot retention period anywhere from 1 to 65,536 days. tip The retention period begins when the snapshot is created. The retention period can only be extended, not shortened. To extend the retention period: On the "Snapshots" page, select "... > Extend snapshot retention time" in the "Actions" column of the desired snapshot. Then, enter a value for "Retention time" and click "OK".
Description	(Optional) Provide additional information for the snapshot. It must be between 0 and 255 characters long.
Project	(Optional) Select the project to which the snapshot belongs. tip A project is a virtual concept that comprises a set of resources, users, and roles. It provides a unified view of and access to resources, as well as control over user and role permissions within the project. For more information, see Resource management. If there is no suitable project, click "Create new projects" on the right to go to the IAM console and create a new one.
Tag	A tag is a key-value pair used to identify cloud resources. Tags help you categorize cloud resources by purpose, owner, environment, and other criteria for easy searching and aggregation. To add a tag to a snapshot, click the icon and enter the tag key and value. For more information, see Tag management.

Click "Create snapshot".

Creating a snapshot takes some time. Thank you for your patience. You can track your progress in the "Status" column on the "Snapshots" page. Once the snapshot has been created, you can view it on the "Snapshots" page or on the "Snapshot Chain" tab of the volume details page.

Creating an encrypted snapshot from the Snapshots page

Method 1: Directly create an encrypted snapshot for an encrypted volume

By default, snapshots of encrypted volumes inherit the encryption properties. To directly create an encrypted snapshot for an encrypted volume:

In the ECS console, go to the Snapshots page and click "Snapshots > Create snapshot".

On the "Create snapshot" page, select the encrypted volume for which you want to create a snapshot.

Specify the name of the snapshot, the retention period, the project, and the other parameters. Then, click "Create Snapshot".

Method 2: Encrypt a snapshot by copying

If you only have one unencrypted snapshot, you can convert it to an encrypted one by selecting the "Encrypted copy" option.

In the ECS console, go to the Snapshots. Find the snapshot you want to encrypt in the list, and click "Copy snapshot" in the "Actions" column.

On the "Copy snapshot" page, select a "Target Region" and enable "Encrypted copy" under "Encryption".

From the drop-down list, select the desired KMS key and enter a name for the new snapshot.

Click "Copy snapshot" to generate the corresponding encrypted snapshot.

Next steps

Viewing snapshot information

Viewing snapshot chains

Deleting snapshots

Rolling back volumes using snapshots

Modifying snapshot attributes

Last updated: 2026.05.28 11:13:46