A backup is the difference between a bad afternoon and a lost business. There are two ways to keep a safe copy, and it is worth taking one before any big change.
Snapshot a whole server
A server snapshot captures the entire server, disk and all, at a point in time.
- Open Cloud Servers and click your server.
- Choose the snapshot action and give it a Name, such as
web-before-upgrade. - Create it. Find it later under Cloud Servers, then Server Snapshots.
- To roll back or clone, launch a new server and choose that snapshot as the Start Source in Create Instance.
Back up a data volume
If your important data is on a separate volume, back up the volume.
- Open Storage, then Storage Backups (a full copy) or Storage Snapshots (a fast point-in-time copy).
- Create one, choose the volume, give it a name, and confirm.
- Restore later by creating a new volume from the backup or snapshot.
A habit worth keeping
Take a snapshot right before you upgrade software, change configuration, or resize. Snapshots and backups use storage, so they add a small ongoing cost; delete the old ones you no longer need. Keeping a week or two of history covers most mistakes.