Instance snapshots in xneelo Cloud

In xneelo Cloud you can create snapshots to capture the state of your cloud instances.

You can also create volume snapshots to back up your storage data – learn more in this related article.


  • What are instance snapshots?

    An instance snapshot is a point-in-time copy of an instance. It captures the entire state of an instance, including the operating system, applications, and storage volumes. 

    You can then use this snapshot to launch a new instance with the same data and configurations.





  • What are instance snapshots used for?

    Snapshots allow you to create new instances that are exact replicas of the original.

    This serves a variety of tasks, including:

    Backups and disaster recovery: 

    • Create snapshots before making major changes to an instance, or regularly create snapshots as good practice.
    • In a disaster scenario, you can quickly spin up a new instance to recover from crashes, hacks, or data loss. 

    Cloning and replication:

    • Use snapshots for standardised configurations across multiple instances.
    • This is useful for scaling applications, load balancing, and redundancy.

    Testing or development:

    • Create snapshots of your live production systems, then create test or development environments that are identical to production.

    Template creation:

    • You can configure an instance with predefined settings and applications.
    • The instance snapshot can then be used as a template for new instances and future deployments.





  • Creating instance snapshots

    You can create snapshots of running cloud instances at any time – follow the steps here. 

    Creating a snapshot of an instance will create a set of new resources:

    • A new private image of the instance snapshot
    • A volume snapshot of the instance boot volume
    • A volume snapshot of any attached volumes





  • Instance snapshot as an image

    When an instance snapshot is created, a new private image is created. 

    • This private image inherits the same name as the instance
    • This is listed as a ‘Snapshot’ in the list of images in your Cloud project.

    This image does not contain any of the data stored on the instance. It only contains a list of the volume snapshots created in its metadata.

    The private image, therefore, has a size of 0 bytes. Because of this size, it is not charged – see more on the pricing rules in xneelo Cloud.





  • Using instance snapshots

    An instance snapshot can serve as the source to create a new cloud instance – follow the steps here.

    The metadata on the snapshot image contains the list of the associated volume snapshots.

    Boot volume snapshot:

    • The snapshot of the original instance boot volume will be used as the data source for the new instance boot volume. 
    • If that boot volume does not exist, then you cannot use the image to launch an instance.
    • The new boot volume will be set to the same type as the original source volume.

    Attached volume snapshots:

    • These volume snapshots are not required to launch a new instance.
    • If the snapshot of one of the attached volumes does not exist, then the instance will be recreated without that volume.



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