Cloud server snapshots

Snapshots are point-in-time copies of your entire server disk. Use them to roll back to a known-good state if an update or configuration change breaks something.

Snapshot types

Pre-patch snapshots are taken automatically before OS patches are applied, so every patch run is reversible.

Taking a manual snapshot

1. Open your server in Cloud Servers
2. Scroll to the Snapshots card
3. Click Take snapshot
4. The snapshot status shows "Creating" while it works, then "Ready" once done

Take a manual snapshot before major changes: installing new software, reconfiguring services, or testing risky updates.

Rolling back to a snapshot

1. Find the snapshot you want to restore in the Snapshots card
2. Click Roll back next to it
3. A confirmation modal appears: "Roll back to this snapshot? This reverts the entire server disk to the snapshot. Anything written since will be lost. The server reboots during rollback."
4. Click Roll back to confirm

Rollback is complete and irreversible. Everything on disk since that snapshot was taken, files, databases, installed software, will be gone. Make sure this is what you want before confirming.

Snapshots vs backups

Snapshots and backups serve different purposes:

For off-site data protection, see the Backups card on the same page.