Using instance backups to create or restore an instance – Support Guides

Learn how to use backups to duplicate and restore your instances.

The OVHcloud Control Panel enables you to create backups of your instances. You can make use of these instance backups in two ways:

Creating a new instance with the backup as a template to duplicate the original instance, for example, if you are configuring a load-balancing infrastructure.
Restoring instances from a backup, for example, if recent changes broke critical configurations on the instance.

Requirements

A backup of a Public Cloud instance
Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel or OVHcloud API

Creating (not restoring) an instance from a backup can also be done via the OpenStack CLI or Horizon interface.

Instructions

Two types of backups are available:

Local: Stored in the same region as your instance.
Remote: Automatically replicated in another region of your choice.

Both creating and restoring an instance from a remote backup are fully supported via the OVHcloud API, offering greater flexibility and effortless integration into your automation processes.

Note: These operations are not yet available through the OVHcloud Control Panel.

Creating an instance from a backup

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

Choose Instance Backup in the Compute section.

Click the more options ... button to the right of the relevant instance, then click Create an instance.

You will see a shortened version of the instance creation page, where you can decide on some options.

Some elements are pre-defined:

Region: Your instance will be created in the same data center as your backup.
Image: The image will correspond to your backup.

Choose the new instance’s model, name, SSH key, vRack, and billing period, then click the Create the instance button.

NOTE:

Only the models that are compatible with your image are available, depending on your quota.
Depending on the model chosen, you may only have one option available for the billing period.

For further information on creating an instance, please refer to this guide.

To create the instance in a different data center, you will first need to transfer the backup to the appropriate region. Please take a look at our guide on transferring an instance backup.

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 Server1_from_snap

In the Horizon interface, click on Compute in the left-hand menu, then on Images. Find the desired image and click the Launch button to the right of your image line.

Name your instance in the dedicated field, then specify the number of instances to create. Then click the Flavor tab.

Choose the desired instance model, then click the Networks tab.

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.

Choose the network you wish to assign to it, then click the Launch Instance button.

You can find the status of your new instance by selecting Compute in the left-hand menu and then Instances.

POST /cloud/project/{serviceName}/region/{regionName}/instance

Fill in the variables:

serviceName: The OVHcloud project ID.
regionName: The region name where the instance will be located.

Example of the request body:

{
  "billingPeriod": "hourly",
  "bootFrom": {
    "imageId": "5cb8ea68-****-****-****-820be8346***"
  },
  "flavor": {
    "id": "e81b46f8-****-****-****-cad655e65***"
  },
  "name": "newInstance",
  "network": {
    "public": true
  },
  "sshKey": {
    "name": "MySSHKey"
  }
}

Restoring an instance from a backup

NOTE: You can only restore an instance to the region in which the backup resides.

Click on Instances in the left-hand sidebar. Click on the more options ︙ button in the row of the relevant instance, then select Edit.

This opens the page for editing an instance, where you can change:

the instance’s name
the instance’s image
the instance’s model
the instance’s billing mode (from hourly to monthly only)

Make your changes if necessary and switch to the Backups tab of the Image section.

Select from the list of available backups. Click on Modify image if you are certain that you want to overwrite the current image with the backup.

The instance will have the Rebuilding status until the process is completed. It might be necessary to refresh the page in the browser to see the current status.

NOTE: As stated in the warning message, any data added after the backup creation will be lost.

POST /cloud/project/{serviceName}/region/{regionName}/instance/{instanceId}/reinstall