Creating Block Storage for VPC snapshots

Creating a snapshot in the UI

In the console, you can create a snapshot of a Block Storage for VPC volume that is attached to a running virtual server instance.

1. You can access the Block Storage snapshot for VPC provisioning screen in the IBM Cloud® console in multiple ways.

   • From the Block Storage snapshots for VPC list,

     1. Click the Navigation menu icon > Infrastructure > Storage > Block Storage snapshots.
     2. From the list of snapshots that is initially empty, click Create.

   • From the Block Storage volumes for VPC list,

     1. Click the Navigation menu icon > Infrastructure > Storage > Block Storage volumes.
     2. From the list of volumes, locate a boot or data volume that is attached to an instance.
     3. Click the Actions menu () and select Create snapshot.

   • From the Block Storage volume details screen,

     1. Go to the volume details page in one of these ways.

        • Click the Navigation menu icon > Infrastructure > Compute > Virtual server instances. Select the instance that contains the volume that you want to make a snapshot of. From the instance details page, scroll to the list of attached volumes and click the name of the volume.
        • Click the Navigation menu icon > Infrastructure > Storage > Block Storage volumes. From the list of Block Storage volumes, select the volume that you want to make a snapshot of.

     2. On the volume details page, select Create snapshot from the Actions menu.

2. Enter the required information to define your snapshot and select the Block Storage for VPC volume that you want to take a snapshot of.

   Selections for creating a snapshot

   Field	Value
   Location	Specify the geography and region for this snapshot.
   Snapshot type	Select Single volume.
   Name	Provide a unique name for the snapshot. The UI verifies the name for proper conventions and identifies duplicate names. For suggestions about how to name your snapshots, see Naming snapshots.
   Resource group	Select a Resource group for the snapshot, or use the default. You can't change the resource group after the snapshot is created.
   Tags	Specify any user tags that you want to identify this resource.
   Access management tags	Specify any access management tags for this resource.
   Volume	Select a volume from the list. The boot or data volume must be attached to a running virtual server instance.
   Encryption	Encryption information for the volume that you selected, either provider-managed encryption or customer-managed encryption. The snapshot inherits the encryption of the source volume. You can't change the encryption type.
   Optional configurations	Cross-region snapshot copy. Select Copy Snapshot to a different region. Click Create.

3. Click Create. You're returned to the screen that you started from. Messages are displayed while the snapshot is being created and when it's ready, the snapshot is displayed in the list of snapshots. For more information, see View snapshot details in the UI.

If you're not ready to order yet or just looking for pricing information, you can add the information that you see in the side panel to an Estimate. For more information about how this feature works, see Estimating your costs.

Enabling fast restore snapshot clones in the UI

1. To enable the fast restore feature, click the new snapshot to view its details.
2. Scroll to the Fast restore card and click Edit.
3. In the side panel, select the zones where you want to enable fast restore clones.
4. Click Save.

The fast restore feature is billed at an extra hourly rate for each zone that it is enabled in regardless of the size of the snapshot. Maintaining fast restore clones is considerably more costly than keeping regular snapshots.

Create a cross-regional copy from the Snapshots for VPC list

In the previous section, you saw how to create a cross-regional snapshot copy when you take a new snapshot in the UI. You can also create cross-regional copies of existing snapshots.

1. In the console, click the Navigation menu icon > Infrastructure > Storage > Block Storage snapshots.

2. In the list of snapshots, locate that snapshot that you want to copy. Make sure the snapshot is in Stable status.

3. Click the Actions menu () and select Copy snapshot.

4. Select the region where you want to create the copy.

   You can have only one copy per region. You can't create a copy in the local (source) region.

5. Click Create.

Creating a snapshot from the CLI

ibmcloud is snapshot-create --volume VOLUME [--name NAME] [--clone-zones CLONE_ZONES] [--resource-group-id RESOURCE_GROUP_ID | --resource-group-name RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME] [--tags  TAG_NAME1,TAG_NAME2,...] [--output JSON] [-q, --quiet]

cloudshell:~$ ibmcloud is snapshot-create --volume r010-df8ffd90-f2e5-470b-83d7-76e64995a1aa --name cli-snapshot-test --tags env:test,env:prod --clone-zones eu-de-1
Creating snapshot cli-snapshot-test under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...

ID                     r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146
Name                   cli-snapshot-test
CRN                    crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:eu-de:a/a1234567::snapshot:r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146
Status                 pending
Clones                 Zone      Available   Created
                       eu-de-1   false       2023-02-17T20:15:46+00:00

Source volume          ID                                          Name
                       r010-df8ffd90-f2e5-470b-83d7-76e64995a1aa   block-test1

Bootable               false
Encryption             provider_managed
Encryption key         -
Minimum capacity(GB)   20
Size(GB)               1
Resource group         ID                                 Name
                       6edefe513d934fdd872e78ee6a8e73ef   defaults

Created                2023-02-17T20:15:43+00:00
Captured at            0001-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Tags                   env:prod,env:test

cloudshell:~$ ibmcloud is snapshot r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146
Getting snapshot r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146 under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...

ID                     r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146
Name                   cli-snapshot-test
CRN                    crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:eu-de:a/a1234567::snapshot:r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146
Status                 stable
Clones                 Zone      Available   Created
                       eu-de-1   true        2023-02-17T20:15:46+00:00

Source volume          ID                                          Name
                       r010-df8ffd90-f2e5-470b-83d7-76e64995a1aa   block-test1

Bootable               false
Encryption             provider_managed
Encryption key         -
Minimum capacity(GB)   20
Size(GB)               1
Resource group         ID                                 Name
                       6edefe513d934fdd872e78ee6a8e73ef   defaults

Created                2023-02-17T20:15:43+00:00
Captured at            2023-02-17T20:15:44+00:00
Tags                   env:prod,env:test

Creating a fast restore snapshot clone from the CLI

You can create a fast restore clone by using the ibmcloud is snapshot-clc command with the snapshot ID and the target zone specification. For more information about available command options, see ibmcloud is snapshot-clone-create.

The following example creates a fast restore snapshot clone of the snapshot r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146 in the eu-de-3 zone.

cloudshell:~$ ibmcloud is snapshot-clc r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146  --zone eu-de-3
Creating zonal clone of snapshot r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146 under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...

Zone        eu-de-3
Available   false
Created     2023-02-17T20:29:21+00:00
Href        https://eu-de.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/eu-de/zones/eu-de-3

The snapshot clone appears as unavailable while the snapshot clone is created. Issue the ibmcloud is snapshot-cl command with the snapshot ID and the clone target zone to see the new snapshot clone as available.

cloudshell:~$ ibmcloud is snapshot-cl r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146 eu-de-3
Getting zonal clone eu-de-3 of snapshot r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146 under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...

Zone        eu-de-3
Available   true
Created     2023-02-17T20:29:21+00:00

The fast restore feature is billed at an extra hourly rate for each zone that it is enabled in regardless of the size of the snapshot. Maintaining fast restore clones is considerably more costly than keeping regular snapshots.

Creating a cross-regional copy of a snapshot from the CLI

To create a copy of a snapshot in another region, run the ibmcloud is snapshot-create command with the --source-snapshot-crn option and the source snapshot CRN.

If the source snapshot is not encrypted with a customer key, the encryption of the copy remains provider-managed. If the source snapshot is protected by a customer-managed key, you need to specify the customer-managed key that you want to use to encrypt the new copy. The source snapshot must be in Stable status for the copy to be created successfully.

The following example creates a snapshot in the target region (us-south) by using the CRN of a snapshot from the source region (us-east).

ibmcloud is snapshot-create --name my-cli-snapshot-crc --source-snapshot-crn crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:us-south:a/a1234567::snapshot:r006-b9590a48-63a3-445e-b819-3f2c0b82daf8

Creating snapshot my-cli-snapshot-crc under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...

ID                     r142-bd4532c0-e73c-44f9-a017-89e5368c521a
Name                   my-cli-snapshot-crc
CRN                    crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:us-east:a/a1234567::snapshot:r142-bd4532c0-e73c-44f9-a017-89e5368c521a
Status                 pending
Clones                 Zone   Available   Created

Source volume          ID                                          Name                   Remote Region
                       r006-be21061a-4dc6-4c9f-b17d-421838fde399   -remote-421838fde399   us-south

Snapshot Copies        ID   Name   Remote Region   CRN   Resource type

Bootable               true
Encryption             provider_managed
Encryption key         -
Source Snapshot        ID                                          Name                   Remote Region   CRN                                                                                                                        Resource type
                       r006-b9590a48-63a3-445e-b819-3f2c0b82daf8   cli-snap-crc-test-sn   us-south        crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:us-south:a/a1234567::snapshot:r006-b9590a48-63a3-445e-b819-3f2c0b82daf8   snapshot

Minimum capacity(GB)   100
Size(GB)               1
Source Image           ID                                          Name                   Remote Region
                       r006-24d856e2-6aec-41c2-8f36-5a8a3766f0d6   -remote-5a8a3766f0d6   us-south

Operating system       Name             Vendor   Version                 Family   Architecture   Display name
                       centos-7-amd64   CentOS   7.x - Minimal Install   CentOS   amd64          CentOS 7.x - Minimal Install (amd64)

Resource group         ID                                 Name
                       cdc21b72d4e647b195de988b175e3d82   Default

Created                2023-04-24T18:54:29+05:30
Captured at            2023-04-24T09:48:03+05:30
Tags                   -
Service Tags           -

For more information about available command options, see ibmcloud is snapshot-create.

Creating a snapshot with the API

You can create a snapshot by using the API.

curl -X POST \
"$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/snapshots?version=2022-12-12&generation=2" \
-H "Authorization: $iam_token" \
-d '{
      "name": "boot-snapshot-1",
      "source_volume": {
        "id": "8948ad59-bc0f-7510-812f-5dc64f59fab8"
      },
      "resource_group": {
        "id": "a342dbfb-3ea7-48d1-96e8-2825ec5feab4"
      },
      "user_tags": [
         "env:test",
         "env:prod"
      ]
    }'

{
  "bootable": true,
  "clones": [],
  "created_at": "2022-12-12T20:18:18Z",
  "crn": "crn:[...]",
  "deletable": false,
  "encryption": "user_managed",
  "encryption_key": {
    "crn": "crn:[...]"
  },
  "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/snapshots/12917904-3771-424d-8391-53ec9e305d52",
  "id": "12917904-3771-424d-8391-53ec9e305d52",
  "lifecycle_state": "pending",
  "minimum_capacity": 100,
  "name": "boot-snapshot1",
  "operating_system": {
    "architecture": "amd64",
    "dedicated_host_only": false,
    "display_name": "Ubuntu Linux® 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa Minimal Install (amd64)",
    "family": "Ubuntu Linux",
    "gpu_supported": [],
    "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/operating_systems/ubuntu-20-04-amd64",
    "name": "ubuntu-20-04-amd64",
    "resource_type": "operating_system",
    "vendor": "Canonical",
    "version": "20.04 LTS Focal Fossa Minimal Install"
  },
  "resource_group": {
    "crn": "crn:[...]",
    "href": "https://resource-controller.cloud.ibm.com/v2/resource_groups/a342dbfb-3ea7-48d1-96e8-2825ec5feab4",
    "id": "a342dbfb-3ea7-48d1-96e8-2825ec5feab4",
    "name": "Default"
  },
  "resource_type": "snapshot",
  "service_tags": [],
  "size": 1,
  "source_image": {
    "crn": "crn:[...]",
    "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/images/5e9c6b3c-c8e4-4c14-a6d7-08c1395d9905",
    "id": "5e9c6b3c-c8e4-4c14-a6d7-08c1395d9905",
    "name": "ibm-ubuntu-20-04-minimal-amd64-1",
    "resource_type": "image"
  },
  "source_volume": {
    "crn": "crn:[...]",
    "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes/8948ad59-bc0f-7510-812f-5dc64f59fab8",
    "id": "8948ad59-bc0f-7510-812f-5dc64f59fab8",
    "name": "my-instance-data",
    "resource_type": "volume"
  },
  "user_tags": [
    "env:test",
    "env:prod"
  ]
}

Creating a snapshot and a fast restore snapshot clone with the API

When you create a snapshot, you can also create a fast restore snapshot clone in another zone. By cloning a snapshot and keeping it in another zone, you can later use the fast restore feature to quickly provision a new volume with data from a snapshot. For more information, see Snapshots fast restore feature.

Make a POST/snapshots request to create a snapshot of a boot or data volume and specify the clones property. Indicate a different zone or zones in your region from the zone in which you're creating the snapshot. In the following example, a clone is created in us-south-2, specified by name.

curl -X POST \
"$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/snapshots?version=2022-12-18\&generation=2" \
-H "Authorization: $iam_token" \
-d '{
    "clones": [
      {
        "zone": {
            "name": "us-south-2"
        }
      }
    ],
    "name": "my-snapshot-1",
    "source_volume": {
        "id": "1a6b7274-678d-4dfb-8981-c71dd9d4daa5"
    "resource_group": {
        "id": "a342dbfb-3ea7-48d1-96e8-2825ec5feab4"
    },
      "user_tags": [
         "env:test",
         "env:prod"
    ]
    }
  }'

A successful response indicates that the clone was created in the specified zone.

{
  "bootable": true,
  "clones": [
		{
			"available": false,
			"created_at": "2022-12-18T14:58:32Z",
			"zone": {
				"name": "us-south-2",
				"href": "https:ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south/zones/us-south-1",
				"resource_type": "zone"
			}
		}
	],
  "created_at": "2022-12-18T20:18:18Z",
  "crn": "crn:[...]",
  "deletable": false,
  "encryption": "user_managed",
  "encryption_key": {
     "crn": "crn:[...]"
  },
  "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/snapshots/12917904-3771-424d-8391-53ec9e305d52",
  "id": "12917904-3771-424d-8391-53ec9e305d52",
  "lifecycle_state": "pending",
}

The fast restore feature is billed at an extra hourly rate for each zone that it is enabled in regardless of the size of the snapshot. Maintaining fast restore clones is considerably more costly than keeping regular snapshots.

Creating a cross-regional copy of a snapshot with the API

When you create a snapshot, you can also copy the snapshot to another region. By creating a snapshot copy in another region and create new instances with the help of that snapshot, you can expand your VPC to a different region. This feature can be used in disaster recovery scenarios, as well. For more information, see Cross-regional snapshot copies.

Make a POST /snapshots request to create a snapshot copy in the target region, specify the name and CRN of the source snapshot. In the following example, the target region is us-east and the source region is us-south. The name and source_snapshot subproperties are required. The resource_group is optional. The encryption_key subproperty is required when the source snapshot is encrypted with a customer-managed key.

If the source snapshot is not encrypted with a customer key, the encryption of the copy remains provider-managed. If the source snapshot is protected by a customer-managed key, you must specify the customer-managed key that you want to use to encrypt the new copy. The source snapshot must be in Stable status for the copy to be created successfully.

curl -X POST \
"$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/snapshots?version=2023-05-10\&generation=2" \
-H "Authorization: $iam_token" \
-d '{
     "name": "my-snapshot",    // required
     "source_snapshot": {      // required
      	"crn": "crn:[...]"
     },
     "resource_group": {       // optional
       "id": "2d1bb5a8-40a8-447a-acf7-0eadc8aeb054"
     },
     "encryption_key"; "crn:[...]"     // required when source has customer-managed encryption
}

A successful response indicates that the snapshot copy was created in the target region.

{
   "created_at": "2023-05-10T20:18:18Z",
   "deletable": false,
   "encryption": "user_managed",
   "encryption_key": {
     "crn": "crn:[...]"
   },
   "href": "https://us-east.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/snapshots/r139-f6bfa329-0e36-433f-a3bb-0df632e79263",
   "id": "r139-f6bfa329-0e36-433f-a3bb-0df632e79263",
   "lifecycle_state": "pending",
   "minimum_capacity": 100,
   "name": "my-snapshot",
   "operating_system": {
     "architecture": "amd64",
     "dedicated_host_only": false,
     "display_name": "Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa Minimal Install (amd64)",
     "family": "Ubuntu Linux",
     "gpu_supported": [],
     "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/operating_systems/ubuntu-20-04-amd64",
     "name": "ubuntu-20-04-amd64",
     "vendor": "Canonical",
     "version": "20.04 LTS Focal Fossa Minimal Install"
   },
   "resource_group": {
     "href": "https://resource-controller.cloud.ibm.com/v2/resource_groups/678523bcbe2b4eada913d32640909956",
     "id": "678523bcbe2b4eada913d32640909956",
     "name": "Default"
   },
   "resource_type": "snapshot",
   "service_tags": [],
   "size": 1,
   "source_image": {
     "crn": "crn:[...]",
     "remote": {
     	"region": {
     	   "name": "us-south",
     	   "hfef": "https://us-east.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south"
     	}
    }
    "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/images/r006-32045dc2-b463-4cda-b424-bc3dcf51dfbb",
    "id": "r006-32045dc2-b463-4cda-b424-bc3dcf51dfbb",
    "name": "ibm-ubuntu-20-04-minimal-amd64-1"
   },
   "source_snapshot": {
     "crn": "crn:[...]",
     "remote": {
     	"region": {
     	   "name": "us-south",
     	   "hfef": "https://us-east.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south"
     	}
    }
     "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/snapshots/r006-511a798c-5816-4082-8ecb-554a440f83de",
     "id": "r006-511a798c-5816-4082-8ecb-554a440f83de",
     "name": "my-snapshot-data"
   },
   "source_volume": {
     "crn": "crn:[...]",
     "remote": {
     	"region": {
     	   "name": "us-south",
     	   "hfef": "https://us-east.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south"
     	}
     },
     "href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes/r006-411a798c-5816-4082-8ecb-554a440f83de",
     "id": "r006-411a798c-5816-4082-8ecb-554a440f83de",
     "name": "my-instance-data"
   },
   "user_tags": []
}

Creating a snapshot with Terraform

You can create a snapshot by using Terraform.

Before you start, gather the following information:

• A unique name for the snapshot.
• The ID of the source volume.
• The resource group ID. You can't change the resource group after the snapshot is created.
• Any tags that you want to attach to the snapshot.

To use Terraform, download the Terraform CLI and configure the IBM Cloud® Provider plug-in. For more information, see Getting started with Terraform.

VPC infrastructure services use a specific regional endpoint, which targets to us-south by default. If your VPC is created in another region, make sure to target the appropriate region in the provider block in the provider.tf file.

See the following example of targeting a region other than the default us-south.

provider "ibm" {
   region = "eu-de"
}

To create a snapshot, use the ibm_is_snapshot resource. The following example creates a snapshot of the volume with the ID r010-df8ffd90-f2e5-470b-83d7-76e64995a1aa. The snapshot is named snapshot-test.

resource "ibm_is_snapshot" "example" {
   name          = "snapshot-test"
   source_volume = "r010-df8ffd90-f2e5-470b-83d7-76e64995a1aa"
}

For more information about the arguments and attributes, see ibm_is_snapshot.

Creating a snapshot and a fast restore snapshot clone with Terraform

To create a snapshot with fast restore clones, use the ibm_is_snapshot resource. The following example creates a snapshot of the volume with the ID r010-bdb8fc70-8afb-4622-826a-d65a9fc477a4. The snapshot is named example-snapshot. In addition, two fast restore clones of the snapshot are created in eu-de-1 and eu-de-3 regions.

resource "ibm_is_snapshot" "example_clones" {
   name            = "example-snapshot-clone"
   source_volume   = "r010-bdb8fc70-8afb-4622-826a-d65a9fc477a4"
   clones          = ["eu-de-1", "eu-de-3"]
}

For more information about the arguments and attributes, see ibm_is_snapshot.

The fast restore feature is billed at an extra hourly rate for each zone that it is enabled in regardless of the size of the snapshot. Maintaining fast restore clones is considerably more costly than keeping regular snapshots.

Create a cross-regional copy of a snapshot with Terraform

To create a copy of the snapshot in a remote region, use the ibm_is_snapshot resource. The following example creates a copy in the target region by using the CRN of the source snapshot. The copy is going to be encrypted by the encryption key that is specified by its CRN.

resource "ibm_is_snapshot" "snapshot" {
   name 		        = "my-cross-regional-snapshot"
   source_snapshot = "r138-4463eb2c-4913-43b1-b9bf-62a94f74c146"
   encryption_key  = "crn:bluemix:public:kms:us-south:a/df0564dd126042ebb03e0224728ce939:4957299d-0ba0-487f-a1a0-c724a729b8b4:key:0cb88b98-9261-4d07-8329-8f594b6641b5"
}

For more information about the arguments and attributes, see ibm_is_snapshot.

The source snapshot must be in Stable status for the copy to be created successfully.