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Backing up an instance

Stephanie R.
Updated

Learn how to create manual and automatic backups of a Public Cloud instance.

You can create a single backup of an instance or configure a schedule to automate your instance backups. Backups can be used to restore your instance to a previous state or to create a new, identical instance.

 

Requirements

 

Topics

 

Instructions

Two types of backup are available:

  • Local: A local backup is stored in the same region as your instance.
  • Remote: A remote backup automatically creates a copy of the local backup in a different region of your choice.

Each backup is billed separately — the remote backup will be charged based on the storage pricing of the selected remote region.

Note: Local Zones are not eligible for remote backups.

Creating a manual backup of an instance

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, access the Public Cloud section and select your Public Cloud project.

Choose the Instances section from the left-hand menu.

Click the more options ... button to the right of your instance and choose Create a backup.

PCI_instances_moreOptions.png

Local backup

Enter a name for the backup, review the pricing information, and click Confirm to finalize.

PCI_instances_createBackup-manual.png

Remote backup

Enter a name for the backup, review the pricing information, and click Add a remote backup.

Enter a name for the remote backup, select a region, and click Confirm.

PCI_instances_createBackup-remote.png

It is not possible to track the backup's progress in real time. However, when you click the Instance Backup section, you can see the status "Backup in progress" during the process.

Once the backup is complete, the status will change to "Enabled."

PCI_instanceBackup_inProgress.png

Log in to the OVHcloud API.

You can list all available regions using the following API call:

GET /cloud/project/{ServiceName}/region

Then, use the following API call to create your backup:

POST /cloud/project/{serviceName}/instance/{instanceId}/snapshot

Fill in the variables:

  • instanceId: The unique instance ID.
  • regionName: The region name where the source instance is located.
  • serviceName: The OVHcloud project ID.
  • distantRegionName (optional): The  region name where the remote backup will be stored.
  • distantSnapshotName (optional): The name of the remote backup to create in the remote region.
  • snapshotName: The name of the snapshot (local backup) to create.

Only create a remote backup if the parameters related to the remote region (distantRegionName and distantSnapshotName) are provided.

You can also confirm that your backup was created successfully:

GET /cloud/project/{serviceName}/snapshot

Run the following command to display the list of instances:

openstack server list

+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------+--------------+
| ID | Name | Status | Networks | Image Name |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------+--------------+
| aa7115b3-83df-4375-b2ee-19339041dcfa | Server 1 | ACTIVE | Ext-Net=51.xxx.xxx.xxx, 2001:41d0:xxx:xxxx::xxxx | Ubuntu 16.04 |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------+--------------+

You can list all available regions using the following command:

openstack region list

Local backup

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

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

Remote backup

Run the following command after following the local backup step:

openstack workflow execution create ovh. glance.glance_download '{"src_image_id":"<image_id>", "src_region":"<current_region>", "dst_region":"<remote_region>"}'

Click on the Compute menu on the left, then select Instances.
Then click on the Create Snapshot button to the right of the instance line.

horizon_instances_dashboard.png

Fill in the backup name and press the Create Snapshot button.

horizon_createSnapshot.png

 

Creating an automated backup of an instance

If you want to automate this functionality directly via OpenStack, you can create a Mistral workflow associated with a cron trigger.

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, access the Public Cloud section and select your Public Cloud project.

Choose the Instances section from the left-hand menu.

Click the more options ... button to the right of your instance and choose Create an automatic backup.

PCI_instances_moreOptions.png

You can configure the backup settings on the next page.

 

The workflow

Currently, only one workflow exists; it will create a backup of the instance and its primary volume.

Select Automatic instance backup as your workflow, then click Next.

PCI_createWorkflow-1.png

 

The resource

Select the targeted instance that you wish to back up, then click Next.

PCI_createWorkflow-2.png

 

The name

Give the schedule a name, take note of the pricing information, and then click Create.

PCI_createWorkflow-4.png

Your backup workflow will be visible in the Workflow Management area under the Compute heading.

 

The schedule

You can set up a custom backup schedule or choose one of the default frequencies:

  • Daily backup with retention of the last 7 backups, or
  • Daily backup with retention of the last 14 backups.

Click Next.

PCI_createWorkflow-3_custom.png

Adding a remote backup

Click the Add a remote backup button, select a location, review the pricing information, and then click the Create button.

PCI_createWorkflow-4_remote.PNG

From the OVHcloud API, you can create an automatic backup workflow using the following API call:

POST /cloud/project/{serviceName}/region/{regionName}/workflow/backup

The backups are charged according to the space used, with a granularity of 1GB. Refer to the Public Cloud pricing page for Instance Backup pricing.

Parameters:

Input Notes
serviceName

API to obtain a list of available services (serviceName):

GET /cloud/project
regionName

API to obtain a list of available regions (regionName):

GET /cloud/project/{serviceName}/region
instanceId

API to obtain a list of Instance IDs:

GET /cloud/project/{serviceName}/instance
cron Set to Unix cron format (time zone in UTC)
maxExecutionCount Set the number of executions to process before the end of the task. Zero (0) means that the task will never end.
name The name of the automatic backup schedule
rotation Set the number of backups to retain

You can verify the creation of your workflow with the following API call:

GET /cloud/project/{serviceName}/region/{regionName}/workflow/backup

 

Managing backups and schedules

Manual backups

NOTE: Instances and backups are charged separately. Deleting an instance will not stop the charges for instance backups. They must be deleted separately.

NOTE: You cannot delete an instance backup if an instance that has been spawned from that backup is running at the time of the delete action.

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, access the Public Cloud section and select your Public Cloud project.

Choose the Instance Backup section from the left-hand menu.

Click the more options ... button to the right of your backup.

From here, you can Create an instance (full instructions) or Delete the backup.

PCI_instanceBackup_moreOptions.png

Via OVHcloud API

DELETE /cloud/project/{serviceName}/snapshot/{snapshotId}

 

Automatic backups

NOTE: Instances and workflows are charged separately. However, if you delete an instance, all workflows attached to it will be deleted automatically (after approx. 30 minutes).

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, access the Public Cloud section and select your Public Cloud project.

Choose the Workflow Management section from the left-hand menu.

Click the more options ... button to the right of your backup schedule.

From here, you can Delete the backup.

PCI_deleteWorkflow.png

Via OVHcloud API

DELETE /cloud/project/{serviceName}/region/{regionName}/workflow/backup/{backupWorkflowId}

 

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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