Overview

Generally, a snapshot is a data backup operation for a single disk. You can create a disk snapshot for a single disk to realize manual or automatic backup of important data. However, in some important data backup scenarios, users may wish to create snapshots for all disks (system disks and data disks) of the cloud server at the same time, that is, to achieve a snapshot of the entire machine. In the meantime, in the data recovery scenario, the user also hopes to roll back the data of each disk to a certain time in the past at the same time to ensure that the data track in each disk remains consistent. Instance snapshots may be used in the following scenarios:

• Instance level backup: A full backup of all disk data of the Baidu Cloud Compute (BCC) at a certain time, including the system disk and all mounted data disks;
• Instance-level disaster recovery: When operating system switching of the BCC instance or major updates to the server, all disks under the server need to create snapshots to avoid misoperation of important data;
• Instance-level data recovery: When the cloud server operation fails, the user rolls back all disks under the instance to a certain moment in the past.

Instructions for Use

The operations involved in instance snapshots include three operations: instance snapshot creation, instance snapshot rollback, and instance snapshot deletion.

Instance Snapshot Creation

You can create instance snapshots of a BCC instance, and each instance snapshot will generate a corresponding ID and name. Instance snapshot is a virtual concept, not real snapshot data. The introduction of the concept of instance snapshots is to facilitate the identification and differentiation of different cloud server instance snapshots at different times. Creating an instance snapshot is essentially creating a snapshot of the system disk and all mounted data disks in the cloud server instance at the same time, and uniformly identifying and managing these disk snapshots through a unique instance snapshot ID.

When you create a snapshot for a disk, you can choose whether to create an instance snapshot for the BCC instance where the disk is located. You can also directly initiate the creation of instance snapshots to a Baidu Cloud Compute (BCC).

Usage restriction

• When creating an instance snapshot, the BCC system disk status of the cloud server must be "running" and the data disk status must be "mounted". For the continuity of reading and writing of cloud disk data and the security of data, cloud disks in other states such as "snapshotting", "allocation expanding", etc. are not allowed to initiate instance snapshot creation operations. You can initiate creation at the end of other operation;
• When your account is in arrears, creating instance snapshots is not allowed;
• After you create an instance snapshot, the system disk and data disk snapshots corresponding to the instance snapshot will be displayed in the disk list simultaneously. You can still initiate corresponding operations on the disk snapshot, such as Create a New CDS Disk, rollback or Cross-Region Copy and so on. However, for the integrity of data backup of the whole machine, independently deleting disk snapshots is not allowed.

Instance Snapshot Deletion

When you no longer need the instance snapshot, you can delete the instance snapshot. Deleting an instance snapshot is equivalent to deleting all the system disk snapshots and data disk snapshots associated with the instance snapshot. The entry point for deletion is in the instance snapshot list.

Note

• The instance snapshot, once deleted, cannot be restored. Please confirm carefully before initiating the deletion operation.

Instance Snapshot Rollback

Instance snapshot rollback refers to the system disk and all data disk snapshots associated with the instance snapshot to initiate a rollback. After the rollback, all cloud disk data in the instance can be restored to a certain moment in the past.

Instance snapshot rollback conditions

• All data disks corresponding to the instance snapshot have not been released and are in the "unmounted" state;
• The instance snapshot corresponds to the cloud server instance in the shutdown state (the data disk can be mounted or unmounted then) or in the shutdown state without billing.

If the cloud disk/cloud server is not in the above state (for example, the corresponding disk has been deleted, the disk is in the process of changing configuration and capacity expansion, account arrears, etc.), the instance snapshot cannot be rolled back. If the associated disk snapshot is no longer needed, you can delete the instance snapshot.

Note

• For the security of your data on the disk, it is recommended to create a snapshot for the corresponding disk before the instance snapshot is rolled back;
• System disk snapshots and data disk snapshots associated with instance snapshots can initiate independent rollbacks. After the rollback, the instance snapshot can still initiate a rollback operation.

Operation Guide

1. Log in to Baidu AI Cloud

Login Baidu AI Cloud Official Website.

• In case you are not registered, you must first Register Account.
• If you have already registered, please Login directly.

2. Log in to the BCC console

On the left of the console, select "Product Service > Baidu Cloud Compute" to enter the page of BCC instance list. Click "Snapshot-Snapshot List" on the left side of the page to enter the snapshot list page. Select "instance snapshot" at the top of the page to enter the instance snapshot list page. You can view all instance snapshot information on this page.

3. Create instance snapshot

On the instance snapshot list page, click "Create instance snapshot” above to initiate the creation of an instance snapshot. Same as disk snapshots, instance snapshots also have geographic attributes. The pop-up cloud server list will only display the list of cloud services in the current region.

Note

• In the disk information table, the status of all cloud disks will be displayed. Only when the system disk status of the Baidu Cloud Compute (BCC) is "running" and the data disk status is "mounted", an instance snapshot can be created. If a disk is in another state (such as "snapshotting", "allocation changing and capacity expanding", etc.), please create an instance snapshot after the current process ends;
• Each Cloud Disk Service (CDS) can create 256 automatic snapshots and 256 manual snapshots. Instance snapshots will occupy the manual snapshot quota for each disk. If the manual snapshot quota for a certain disk is full, please clean up unnecessary manual snapshots before initiating the creation of instance snapshots.

4. View instance snapshot details

Click the instance snapshot name, and the system disk and all data disk snapshot information list associated with the instance snapshot will pop up on the right.

Click "View Disk Snapshot List" at the top of the page, and you can view the detailed information of the associated system disk and data disk snapshots in the disk snapshot list. You can also initiate new operations on disk snapshots as needed, but for the sake of the integrity of data backup, you cannot delete the associated disk snapshots individually.

5. Instance snapshot rollback

After rollback conditions of the instance snapshot (see "Instructions > Instance Snapshot Rollback Conditions" in this file) are met, you can initiate a rollback operation for the instance snapshot.

6. Instance snapshot deletion

You can delete unnecessary instance snapshots in batches. After selecting the corresponding instance snapshot, click the "Batch Delete” at the top of the page to delete the instance snapshot.