Storage Snapshots

Snapshots provide point-in-time copies of your block storage volumes. They are incremental, meaning only changed blocks are stored after the initial snapshot, optimizing storage costs and creation speed. Snapshots can be used to restore data, create new volumes, or migrate workloads across regions.

💡 Pro Tip

Snapshots are block-level copies and do not include filesystem metadata. For consistent database snapshots, run fsfreeze or shut down the application before creating the snapshot.

Prerequisites

CloudNexus CLI v2.4+ installed and configured
Active API key with storage:read and storage:write scopes
An existing volume in the available or attached state
Sufficient storage quota in the target region

Creating a Snapshot

Using the CLI

bash

cx snapshot create --volume-id vol-8f3a2b9c --name "daily-prod-2025-05-20" --tags env:prod,team:backend

Using the API

HTTP POST /v2/snapshots

{
  "volume_id": "vol-8f3a2b9c",
  "name": "daily-prod-2025-05-20",
  "tags": ["env:prod", "team:backend"],
  "description": "Automated nightly snapshot",
  "region": "us-east-1"
}

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`volume_id`	string	Yes	UUID of the source volume
`name`	string	No	Human-readable name (max 64 chars)
`tags`	array	No	Key-value pairs for filtering
`region`	string	No	Target region (defaults to volume region)

Managing Snapshots

List Snapshots

bash

cx snapshot list --volume-id vol-8f3a2b9c --sort created_at

Restore from Snapshot

⚠️ Warning

Restoring overwrites the existing volume data. Ensure the volume is unmounted from any running instance before restoring.

bash

cx volume restore --volume-id vol-8f3a2b9c --snapshot-id snap-7d4e1a2f

Delete a Snapshot

bash

cx snapshot delete --snapshot-id snap-7d4e1a2f --force

Best Practices

Automate with Schedules: Use cron or our Schedule API to create daily snapshots during low-traffic windows.
Retention Policies: Keep 7 daily, 4 weekly, and 12 monthly snapshots to balance recovery needs and costs.
Cross-Region Replication: Copy critical snapshots to a secondary region using cx snapshot copy --region eu-west-1.
Monitor Storage: Incremental snapshots save space, but initial full snapshots consume full volume size. Monitor via the dashboard or cx account usage.
Consistency: For databases, flush logs and freeze filesystems before snapshotting to avoid corruption.

FAQ

Can I take a snapshot of a mounted volume?

Yes. However, active I/O during snapshot creation may cause temporary consistency gaps. For production databases, we recommend unmounting the volume or using fsfreeze for consistent block-level backups.

How are snapshot costs calculated?

The first snapshot stores a full copy of the volume. Subsequent snapshots only store changed blocks. You are billed per GB-month of stored data. Cross-region copies incur standard egress fees.

Can I boot a VM directly from a snapshot?

No. Snapshots are block-level backups. You must first create a new volume from the snapshot, then attach it to an instance or convert it to a bootable image using cx image create --source-snapshot.

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