VM Snapshot
You can create snapshots of an existing ccloud³ VM to back up all the current contents of the ccloud³ VM’s hard disk.
Depending on the services running on the ccloud³ VM, you may wish to shut down the ccloud³ VM before creating a snapshot to ensure that all applications have written their data to the hard disk. For example, many databases do not guarantee data consistency on the hard disk unless the database service is stopped or the entire ccloud³ VM is shut down first.
Prerequisites
- Access to the centron Control Panel
Shut down and take a snapshot (recommended)
Live snapshot
You can shut down a ccloud³ VM via the Control Panel or, on Linux, using the command line. We recommend using the command line on Linux, as this ensures that all services are stopped before the ccloud³ VM is shut down. To do this, use the following command:
sudo shutdown -h now
However, if you wish to shut down a ccloud³ VM running an operating system other than Linux, you must use the Control Panel. To do this, click on the name of the ccloud³ VM to go to its details page. Then, in the top right-hand corner, click on the ON switch and then select ‘Turn off’ in the pop-up warning window.
Taking a snapshot of a ccloud³ VM using automation
Once the ccloud³ VM has been switched off, you can create a snapshot of the ccloud³ VM by using the following doctl command or by sending a request to the VM Actions endpoint and setting the type field to "snapshot".
You can find out how to take a snapshot of a ccloud³ VM using the centron API via the link below:
Here’s how to take a snapshot of a ccloud³ VM via the Control Panel:
Once the ccloud³ VM has been switched off, you can create a snapshot from the ‘Take snapshot’ section of the ccloud³ VM’s Snapshots menu.
'Take snapshot' button
By default, the "Enter snapshot name" field is populated with the name of the ccloud³ VM, followed by the current Unix timestamp, to make it easier for you to identify the snapshot later. Alternatively, however, you can manually edit the name either before or after creation
Now click on the "Take Snapshot" or "Take Live Snapshot" button to create a (live) snapshot.
A progress bar shows the progress of the snapshot creation. Once complete, the snapshot will be listed alongside all previous snapshots. To power on the ccloud³ VM again, click the OFF switch.