Snapshots and backups

How many snapshots and backups you can keep depends on your plan: you see it next to the title of each box (e.g. "1/2").

Snapshots

A snapshot is an instant picture of the disk, stored on the same server. It is perfect before an upgrade or a risky change.

• Take a snapshot, and name it if you like (e.g. "before the upgrade").
• Restore: the VPS shuts down, the disk goes back to the moment of the snapshot and the VPS starts again. Anything written after it is lost.
• Delete the snapshots you no longer need to take new ones.

Snapshots live on the same server as the VPS: they do not protect against a server failure. That is what backups are for.

Backups

A backup is a copy of the VPS stored in another place, never on the same server. The first one is complete; later ones usually save only what changed, so they are much faster. Every backup still restores in full.

• If your plan includes them, backups run automatically at night (every night or once a week): the box says when and how many are kept. The oldest is deleted automatically.
• Back up now makes one right away (at most one per hour).
• Restore brings the whole VPS back to the moment of the backup; IP addresses and resources stay as they are now. Snapshots are not part of the backup.

If the VPS has extra disks, snapshots and backups include them too.

During backups and restores the page shows the progress. A restore takes a few minutes and the VPS stays off until it is done.