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Downloading and transferring an instance backup from one OpenStack region to another

Stephanie R.
Updated

Learn how to transfer an instance backup from one OpenStack region to another while preserving the configuration and state of the instance.

Through this guide, you will create an OpenStack environment that will be used as a "jump host" to transfer the backup from one region to another. This environment can be an instance hosted on OVHcloud or your local machine.

 

Requirements

  • A Public Cloud instance in your OVHcloud account
  • OpenStack CLI (see this guide for more information)
  • Connectivity to OVHCloud OpenStack APIs
  • Available storage that matches the instance disk size (for temporary backup storage)

 

Instructions

Create a backup

$ openstack server list
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------+--------------+--------+
| ID                                   | Name      | Status | Networks                                         | Image Name   | Flavor |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------+--------------+--------+
| aa7115b3-83df-4375-b2ee-19339041dcfa | Server 1  | ACTIVE | Ext-Net=15.xxx.xxx.xxx, 2604:41d0:xxx:xxxx::xxxx | Ubuntu 24.04 | b3-8   |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------+--------------+--------+

Next, run the following command to create a backup of your instance:

$ openstack server image create --name snap_server1 aa7115b3-83df-4375-b2ee-19339041dcfa

 

Download the backup

Next, run this command to list available instances:

$ openstack image list --long

 

+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+--------+
| ID                                   | Name                                          | Status |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+--------+
| 825b785d-8a34-40f5-bdcd-0a3c3c350c5a | snap_server1                                  | active |
| 3ff877dc-1a62-43e7-9655-daff37a0c355 | NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC)                        | active |
| a14a7c1e-3ac5-4a61-9d36-1abc4ab4d5e8 | Centos 7                                      | active |
| f720a16e-543b-42e5-af45-cc188ad2dd34 | Debian 8 - GitLab                             | active |
| d282e7aa-332c-4dc7-90a9-d49641fa7a95 | CoreOS Stable                                 | active |
| 2519f0fb-18cc-4915-9227-7754292b9713 | Ubuntu 16.04                                  | active |
| b15789f8-2e2f-4f6c-935d-817567319627 | Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard - UEFI        | active |
| ed2f327f-dbae-4f9e-9754-c677a1b76fa3 | Ubuntu 14.04                                  | active |
| 9c9b3772-5320-414a-90bf-60307ff60436 | Debian 8 - Docker                             | active |

Now identify the instance backup from the list:

| 825b785d-8a34-40f5-bdcd-0a3c3c350c5a | snap_server1 | qcow2 | bare | 1598029824 | active |

Finally, run this command to download the backup on the jump host:

$ openstack image save --file snap_server1.qcow 825b785d-8a34-40f5-bdcd-0a3c3c350c5a

 

Transfer the backup to another OpenStack region

To start the transfer process, you first need to load new environment variables.

NOTE: If you are transferring your backup to an OpenStack region within the same project, you will need to change the variable OS_REGION_NAME.

$ export OS_REGION_NAME=US-EAST-VA-1

If you are transferring your backup to another project or account, you will have to reload the environment variables linked to that account using the following command:

$ source openrc.sh

To transfer the backup to the new OpenStack region, use this command:

$ openstack image create --disk-format qcow2 --container-format bare --file snap_server1.qcow snap_server1

NOTE: If your instance uses a Windows image, you need to add specific properties. Otherwise, when creating the instance via the OVHcloud Control Panel, it will not be possible to associate a flavor of the win-x-x type. This type of flavor, and only this one, enables authentication to the OVHcloud KMS.

Add specific properties for image creation:

$ openstack image create --disk-format qcow2 --container-format bare --file snap_server1.qcow --property "_system_cloud_property=windows" --property "distro_family=windows" --property "os_type=windows" snap_server1

Add specific properties after image creation:

$ openstack image set --property "_system_cloud_property=windows" --property "distro_family=windows" --prope
+------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Field            | Value                                                                                                                                                                                     |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| checksum         | 82cb7d57ec7278818bba0afcf802f0fb                                                                                                                                                          |
| container_format | bare                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| created_at       | 2019-03-22T14:26:22Z                                                                                                                                                                      |
| disk_format      | qcow2                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| file             | /v2/images/1bf21cf3-8d39-40ae-b088-5549c31b7905/file                                                                                                                                      |
| id               | 0a3f5901-2314-438a-a7af-ae984dcbce5c                                                                                                                                                      |
| min_disk         | 0                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| min_ram          | 0                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| name             | snap_server1                                                                                                                                                                              |
| owner            | 4e03fd164d504aa3aa03938f0bf4ed90                                                                                                                                                          |
| properties       | direct_url='swift+config://ref1/glance/1bf21cf3-8d39-40ae-b088-5549c31b7905', locations='[{u'url': u'swift+config://ref1/glance/1bf21cf3-8d39-40ae-b088-5549c31b7905', u'metadata': {}}]' |
| protected        | False                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| schema           | /v2/schemas/image                                                                                                                                                                         |
| size             | 3004956672                                                                                                                                                                                |
| status           | active                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| tags             |                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| updated_at       | 2019-03-22T14:41:05Z                                                                                                                                                                      |
| virtual_size     | None                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| visibility       | private                                                                                                                                                                                   |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Create an instance from your backup

NOTE: If your instance is a Windows server, you must select a flavor of type win-xx-xx (for example, win-b2-15) and have a public interface on the Ext-Net network. Without these conditions, authentication with the OVHcloud KMS will not be possible, and your server will remain with an unactivated license. This could lead to limitations, including the absence of updates. Please note that it is not possible to resize a Linux instance (such as b2-15) to a Windows instance (such as win-b2-15). To make this transition, you need to recreate a new instance.

To create an instance from your backup, use the backup ID as the image with this command:

$ openstack server create --key-name SSHKEY --flavor 98c1e679-5f2c-4069-b4da-4a4f7179b758 --image 0a3f5901-2314-438a-a7af-ae984dcbce5c --network Ext-Net Guide-test-va1-from-snap

 

Go further

For more information and tutorials, please see our other Public Cloud support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.

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