# Create a Snapshot

You should create a snapshot whenever you need to capture the current state of a disk, allowing you to restore or reference it later. In general, take a snapshot before making any changes you might need to undo.

## Procedures

1. Go to **Snapshot** > **Create Snapshot**.

   <div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/RkIGlgTbk9JtgVcZkA9J" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>
2. Select one or more source disks you want to attach.\
   If you select one source disk, a single snapshot will be created; if you select multiple disks, multiple snapshots will be created.\
   Each snapshot contains the exact same data as the disk it was attached to at the time of creation.
3. Configure retention policy.
   * **Indefinite** – snapshots are kept until manually or automatically deleted.
   * **Custom** – define an expiration period (e.g., keep for 7 days, 30 days, etc.).
4. Confirm your configurations.

{% hint style="info" %} <mark style="color:blue;">**Note**</mark>

* <mark style="color:blue;">Snapshot creation incurs resource fees. View</mark> [<mark style="color:purple;">Snapshot Billing</mark>](/welcome/pricing/elastic-compute-billing/snapshot-billing.md) <mark style="color:blue;">for more details.</mark>
* <mark style="color:blue;">Do not stop or restart the instance while creating a snapshot, or the operation may fail.</mark>
  {% endhint %}

## Result

You will see the manual snapshots you created on the snapshot list page.

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/iYRDWAD0nUYbqOsMeioD" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

Click snapshot details to view the basic information.

* **Go to Source Disk Details**\
  Click **Go to Source Disk Details** on the snapshot details page, and you will jump to the source disk details page.

  <div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/CekG1N40WJ2gQhmq3lcx" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

  * Snapshot quantity\
    The total number of snapshots attached to the disk.
  * Total snapshot size\
    The total storage size of all the attached snapshots.

## More Actions

On the snapshot list page, you can perform more operations in **Actions**.

### Revert to Snapshot

Select the desired snapshot you want to revert to. The disk data will be rolled back to the state it was in when the snapshot was created.

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/EpeSiwmsDnKeu1fFpQRA" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

### Create a Disk

Click **Create a Disk** to jump to the disk creation page. You can create your disk from the selected snapshot by using the snapshot data to generate a new disk with identical content.

{% hint style="info" %} <mark style="color:blue;">**Note**</mark>

<mark style="color:blue;">You cannot create disk from boot disk snapshot.</mark>
{% endhint %}

### Change Retention

Change the retention policy between **Indefinite** and **Custom**.

### Delete a Snapshot

If you don't need a snapshot anymore, you can delete it. Please note that the snapshot deletion is irreversible. Please proceed with caution. Multi deletion is also supported.


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