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How to Create Snapshots on a Vultr Optimized Cloud Compute Instance

Updated on January 15, 2025

A snapshot is a point-in-time copy of an instance's state, including its entire file system and disk contents. Snapshots offer a quick backup solution for instances, making it easier to restore data in case of unexpected failures or data loss.

Follow this guide to create snapshots on a Vultr Optimized Cloud Compute instance using the Vultr Customer Portal, API, or CLI.

  • Vultr Customer Portal
  • Vultr API
  • Vultr CLI

  1. Navigate to Products and click Compute.

  2. Click the target Vultr Optimized Cloud Compute instance to open its management page.

  3. Navigate to the Snapshots tab.

  4. Enter a new descriptive label in the Label field and click Create Snapshot to take a new snapshot of your instance. Snapshot creation can take 20 to 30 minutes depending on the instance size.

    Create Snapshot

  1. Send a GET request to the List Instances endpoint and note your target instance's ID.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
  -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"

  2. Send a POST request to the Create Snapshot endpoint to create a new snapshot of the instance.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/snapshots" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "instance_id" : "<instance-id>",
    "description" : "<label>"
  }'

  1. List all available instances and note your target instance's ID.

    console 
    $ vultr-cli instance list

  2. Create a new snapshot of the instance.

    console 
    $ vultr-cli snapshot create --id <instance-id>