What snapshots are
A snapshot captures the exact state of your VM disk at the moment it is taken. Restoring a snapshot reverts the disk to that state — data written after the snapshot is lost.
When to take a snapshot
- Before installing a major OS update.
- Before editing system configuration files.
- Before installing experimental software or one-click apps.
- Before a database migration.
Taking a snapshot
- Open the VPS service page and select the Snapshots tab.
- Click Take Snapshot, enter a label (e.g. "before-php-upgrade"), and confirm.
- The VM stays running during the snapshot — no downtime is required.
Restoring a snapshot
Click Restore next to the snapshot you want to roll back to. The VM is powered off, the disk is reverted, and the VM is started again. Total time is usually under a minute.
Restoring is destructive: any data written after the snapshot was taken is lost. If you want to keep the current state too, take a fresh snapshot before restoring.
Snapshots vs. backups
Snapshots live on the same hypervisor as the VM. They are perfect for quick rollbacks but should not be your only protection against hardware failure. For long-term safety enable the Backup & Recovery add-on, which stores copies off-site on Backblaze B2.