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How to Restore Snapshots

Updated on December 12, 2024

Restoring a snapshot involves recovering the exact state of a system at the time the snapshot was created. Snapshots capture the complete configuration, including the operating system, applications, and data, making it easy to revert to a specific point in time. This process is essential for system recovery, testing, or duplicating environments, ensuring consistency and minimizing downtime.

Follow this guide to restore snapshots using the Vultr Customer Portal, API, and CLI.

Note
When restoring a server backup that uses a static IP, you must reset the network to DHCP to obtain a functional IP address. If network configuration needs to be reset after restoring a snapshot, refer to Return a Vultr Server to the Default DHCP Configuration. Restoring a snapshot on existing Vultr Cloud Compute servers or provisioning new servers using snapshots may take an additional 10-15 minutes compared to standard operations.
  • Vultr Customer Portal
  • Vultr API
  • Vultr CLI

  1. Navigate to Products and click Compute.

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

  3. Navigate to the Snapshots tab.

  4. Choose any snapshot you want to restore.

  5. Click "Restore Snapshot" to start the restoration procedure on that target Vultr Cloud Compute instance.

  6. Optional: To provision a new Vultr Cloud Compute instance with snapshot, select Snapshot in the Choose Image section. How to Provision Vultr Cloud Compute Instance.

  1. Send a GET request to the List Snapshots endpoint to list all snapshots.

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

  2. Send a GET request to the List Instances endpoint to list all deployed Vultr Cloud Compute instances. Note the target instance's ID.

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

  3. Send a POST request to the Restore Instances endpoint to start the restore procedure of the target Vultr Cloud Compute instance.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances/<instance-id>/restore" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data '{
        "snapshot_id": "<snapshot-id>"
    }'

  4. Optional: Send a POST request to the Create Instances endpoint to provision a new Vultr Cloud Compute instance using snapshot.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data '{
        "region" : "<region>",
        "plan" : "<plan>",
        "snapshot_id" : "<snapshot-id>",
        "label" : "<label>",
        "hostname": "<hostname>"
    }'

  1. List all snapshots and note the target snapshot's ID.

    console 
    $ vultr-cli snapshot list

  2. List all Vultr Cloud Compute instances and note target instance's ID.

    console 
    $ vultr-cli instance list

  3. Restore a snapshot on the target Vultr Cloud Compute instance.

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

  4. Optional: Provision a new Vultr Cloud Compute instance using snapshot.

    console 
    $  vultr-cli instance create --region="<region>" --plan="<plan>" --snapshot="<snapshot-id>" --label="<label>"