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Create an automatic snapshot policy

Updated at: 2025-01-24 09:25

An automatic snapshot policy enables the system to periodically create snapshots for specified disks, mitigating the risk of data loss due to human oversight and enhancing system reliability and stability. It also supports cross-region snapshot replication for rapid data recovery in the event of regional disasters or failures. This topic describes the steps to create an automatic snapshot policy.

Prerequisites

The snapshot service must be enabled. For detailed instructions, see Enable snapshots.

Procedure

Note

If no snapshot policies exist in the current region, the system will create a default policy (default_policy) when you first assign a policy to a disk. You may use the default policy or create a custom policy to suit your business needs.

  1. Log on to the ECS console.

  2. In the left-side navigation pane, select Storage & Snapshots > Snapshots.

  3. At the top left of the page, select the resource group and region where the target resource is located. 地域

  4. Select the Automatic Snapshot Policies tab and click Create Automatic Snapshot Policy.

  5. On the Create Automatic Snapshot Policy page, configure the parameters for your automatic snapshot policy, then click OK.

    Policy information

    Specify the policy name, execution time, snapshot retention period, and other details for the automatic snapshot policy.

    Parameter

    Description

    Parameter

    Description

    Policy Name

    Customize the name of the automatic snapshot policy.

    Repeat Date

    The days of the week on which to create automatic snapshots. You can select one or more days from Monday to Sunday.

    Start Time

    • The points in time at which automatic snapshots are created. Use UTC+8 time, in hours.

    • Automatic snapshots will be created within one hour after the Start Time.

    • If multiple automatic snapshots need to be created in one day, you can select multiple time points from 00:00 to 23:00, a total of 24 hours.

    Important

    Creating snapshots temporarily reduces the I/O performance of block storage. The general performance difference is within 10%, and there may be a brief slowdown. We recommend that you choose off-peak hours to create snapshots.

    Retention Period

    Set the retention period for automatic snapshots. The system defaults to continuous retention, but you can also customize the duration.

    • Custom Duration: Snapshots will be automatically deleted by the system after exceeding the custom retention period.

    • Continuous Retention Until The Snapshot Quantity Reaches The Limit And Is Automatically Deleted: When the number of automatic snapshots reaches the limit, the system will automatically delete the earliest created automatic snapshot.

    Note
    • After selecting a custom retention period, when the snapshot retention period has 3 days remaining, the Retention Period column in the snapshot list will highlight a reminder Automatically Released In Xx Days. You can extend the snapshot retention period before expiration as needed. For operations, see Extend Snapshot Retention Period.

    • For the upper limit of automatic snapshot quotas, see Limits.

    • After the snapshot policy is created, you can adjust the retention period through Modify Automatic Snapshot Policy. Adjusting the retention period does not affect existing snapshots and only applies to newly created automatic snapshots. For example, if the retention period of existing snapshots is 20 days and the snapshot policy is modified to 10 days, the new automatic snapshot policy will not affect the retention period of existing snapshots.

    • If you Set the automatic snapshot to be released with the disk property, when the disk is released (manually releasing the disk, releasing the disk with the instance, or replacing the system disk), the automatic snapshot will be deleted along with the disk even if the snapshot has not expired.

    • Regardless of whether the snapshot has a custom retention period or is retained permanently, you can delete snapshots as needed to avoid incurring ongoing snapshot storage fees. For specific operations, see Delete Snapshot.

    Cross-region replication policy

    Important
    • After a snapshot is copied, a snapshot copy is created in the destination region, incurring cross-region data transfer fees. Additionally, the snapshot copy in the destination region will incur charges based on its capacity and storage duration. For more details, see Snapshot Billing.

    • For more information about snapshot replication, see Replicate Snapshot.

    Parameter

    Description

    Parameter

    Description

    Snapshot Cross-region Replication

    After enabling, snapshots created by using this automatic snapshot policy will be automatically replicated to the destination region for data backup and disaster recovery.

    Destination Region

    Select the destination region to which the snapshot needs to be replicated.

    Retention Period Of Replicated Snapshots

    The retention period of snapshot copies in the destination region.

    Encrypted Replication

    • Not enabled: If your source snapshot is an encrypted snapshot, the system will use the service key created by Key Management Service (KMS) in the destination region to encrypt and replicate the snapshot to the destination region. If your source snapshot is not encrypted, it will be directly replicated to the destination region.

    • Enabled: Regardless of whether your source snapshot is encrypted, you can encrypt and replicate the created automatic snapshot to the destination region based on the specified key.

    For more information about ECS encryption keys, see Encryption Keys.

    Advanced configuration

    Parameter

    Description

    Parameter

    Description

    Tag

    Select existing tag keys and tag values, or enter new tag keys and tag values. The automatic snapshots created by this automatic snapshot policy are bound to this tag by default. For more information about tags, see Tags.

    The tags of an automatic snapshot policy can be modified after creation. For more information, see Edit Automatic Snapshot Policy Tags.

    Resource Group

    Select an existing resource group to manage the grouping of snapshot policies. For more information about resource groups, see Resource Groups.

  6. Once the automatic snapshot policy is established, it is advisable to immediately apply this policy to the disk to begin automatic snapshot backups.

    For step-by-step guidance, see Set Automatic Snapshot Policy for Disk.

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