Skip to content

Storage

An instance's system disk goes when the instance goes. Keep data you care about on a volume: a disk that lives on its own, which you attach to an instance and can move to another. Take snapshots before risky changes, and let a schedule take them for you.

  • Volumes

    Block storage you attach to an instance, extend, retype or move to another project.

  • Snapshots

    Point-in-time copies of a volume, restored to a new volume.

  • Schedules

    Snapshots on a timetable, instances stopped and started each week, group sizes by time.

How recovery works

Restoring a volume from a snapshot The volume db-data is attached to the instance db-1. A snapshot of it, db-data-before-upgrade, records its contents at one moment, on the same storage as the volume. To restore, make a new volume from the snapshot and attach it to an instance; the original volume is not changed. db-1 Instance db-data Volume · 100 GiB db-data-before-upgrade Snapshot · same storage db-data-restored New volume attached snapshot restore A snapshot shares the volume's storage: it is a recovery point, not a backup on separate storage.
A snapshot records a volume at one moment. Restoring makes a new volume from it; the original volume and the snapshot stay as they were.

Snapshots are not backups

A snapshot sits on the same storage as its volume. It protects you against a change you want to undo, not against losing that storage. Backups to separate storage are not offered yet: keep copies of critical data elsewhere too.

Where to start

Keep data on a volume walks through creating, formatting, mounting, snapshotting and restoring a volume.