title	excerpt	updated
Creating a volume backup	Discover how to back up your Block Storage volume in the OVHcloud Control Panel	2023-03-29

Objective

If you value the data stored in you Block Storage volumes, it is worth organising the backup of this data to prevent the potential impact of any issue on this data, whether it is a human error or a cluster incident.

A volume snapshot is a recovery point stored within the same storage cluster as the original volume. Operations will be fast, but in case of an incident on the cluster, both volume and volume snapshot might be unavailable. Volume snapshot creation does not require the volume to be detached from the instance.

A volume backup is an image created out of your volume, which is stored in the Object Storage cluster where the original volume is located. The level of resiliency is ideal and will allow you to quickly react to any incident on your volume, creating another volume from the backup. Volume backup creation requires the volume to be detached from the instance.

Both volume snapshot and volume backup allow you to:

Create backups of your volume with a few clicks and keep them for as long as you need.
Use the backups to restore your volume state.
Use the backups as a template to create identical volumes.

This guide explains how to create a backup of your Block Storage volume in the OVHcloud Control Panel.

Requirements

Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
A Block Storage volume created in your Public Cloud project

Instructions

Log in to the OVHcloud Control Panel, go to the Public Cloud{.action} section and select the Public Cloud project concerned. Then open Block Storage{.action} in the left-hand navigation bar under Storage.

In the row of the volume concerned, click on the ...{.action} button and select Create a backup{.action}.
It is not required to detach the volume from its instance first. However, if you wish to do so, please consult this section of the corresponding guide for Linux and this section for Windows.

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Coming from the Block Storage volume section, the volume concerned is indicated. Otherwise, select the volume you want create a backup from.

Then select the type of backup you want to create: volume snapshot or volume backup.

Choosing volume snapshot, you will have the possibility to modify the name of the volume snapshot to be created. Then click Create backup{.action}.
Choosing volume backup, you will be asked to detach your volume from the instance in order to continue. You will be then able to modify the name of the volume backup to be created. Finally, click Create backup{.action}.

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The backup creation, be it a volume snapshot or a volume backup, may take several hours, depending on the amount of data present on the volume, as well as the instance resource utilisation for the volume snapshot and other host-specific factors.

We therefore recommend that you perform your snapshots outside of your production hours.

Other best practices include:

Avoid creating snapshots and backups during peak hours (04:00 AM - 10:00 PM Paris time).
Regularly validate that you are able to get your data back from your volume snapshot or volume backup.
Install the qemu-guest agent if it is not installed, or try to disable it if necessary.
Even if not mandatory, prefer to detach your volume when creating a volume snapshot.

Since a volume snapshot / volume backup is a clone of the entire disk, it will have the maximum size of the original volume, regardless of the actual disk space allocation.

You will find the list of your volume snapshots in the section Volume Snapshot{.action} in the left-hand navigation bar. After the snapshot is created, it will be added to this table.

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You will find the list of your volume backups in the section Volume Backup{.action} in the left-hand navigation bar. As soon as the volume backup creation is requested, it will be added to this table.

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Click the ...{.action} button to Delete{.action} or to Create a volume{.action} based on the respective volume snapshot or volume backup. You can find further information in this guide.