Snapshots

Snapshots capture the current state of your VM's disk at a point in time. Use them to back up before a risky change, clone a working environment, or restore a VM that broke after an update.

Take a snapshot

1. Open the VM detail page → Snapshots tab
2. Click Take Snapshot
3. Give it a name (e.g. before-nginx-upgrade)

The snapshot is created while the VM keeps running. No downtime required.

Restore from a snapshot

1. Open the Snapshots tab
2. Find the snapshot you want to restore
3. Click Restore

danger

Restoring overwrites the current disk state with the snapshot. Any changes made after the snapshot was taken will be lost.

Create a new VM from a snapshot

You can spin up a new VM pre-loaded with a snapshot's disk state — useful for cloning a working environment or testing a change without touching the original VM.

1. Open the Snapshots tab
2. Click Create VM from snapshot next to the snapshot
3. Configure the new VM (name, plan, region) and confirm

Delete a snapshot

Snapshots consume storage and are billed accordingly. Delete ones you no longer need:

1. Open the Snapshots tab
2. Click Delete next to the snapshot and confirm

When to use snapshots

Situation	Recommendation
Before a major package upgrade	Take a snapshot first
Before editing nginx / system config	Take a snapshot first
Setting up a reusable base environment	Snapshot once, clone as needed
Routine backups of stateful data	Use a Volume instead — volumes are better suited for persistent data backups