Snapshots for Cloud Pool VMs
A snapshot is a point-in-time capture of a VM's disk state. Snapshots are fast and local to the VM — they are not the same as scheduled backups.
| Snapshots | Backups | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Quick rollback before a change | Longer-term copies on backup storage |
| Managed from | VM Snapshots tab, or pool Snapshots tab | VM Backups tab, or pool Backups tab + policies |
| Retention | You delete them manually | Policy keep-last / calendar retention |
| Risk on restore | Later snapshots on that chain are removed | Restores follow backup tooling (separate from snapshots) |
Snapshot limit
Each VM shows used of max snapshots (for example 2 of 5 snapshots used). The default cap is 5 per VM. Organization administrators can raise or lower it on the Cloud Resource Pool subscription ceilings (next to SDN quota). 0 means no snapshots. Clients cannot change the cap.
If you are at the limit, delete an old snapshot before creating another.
Create a snapshot
- Open the VM → Snapshots tab.
- Optionally enter a description, then click Create snapshot.
- Wait for the create job to finish; the list refreshes with the new entry.
Restore (rollback)
- On the VM Snapshots tab (or the pool Snapshots tab), choose Restore on the snapshot you want.
- Read the confirmation carefully: restore permanently deletes every snapshot taken after this one and resets the VM disks to that point (similar impact to a hard reset for the guest).
- Confirm and wait for the job to finish.
Delete a snapshot
- Choose Delete on the snapshot.
- Confirm. Deletion cannot be undone.
Pool Snapshots tab
Compute → Cloud pools → [pool] → Snapshots lists snapshots across VMs in that pool so you can restore or delete without opening each VM first.
Tips
- Snapshot before risky upgrades; delete the snapshot once you are confident.
- Do not rely on snapshots alone for disaster recovery — use Backup policies for Cloud Pools.
- A long chain of snapshots can affect disk performance; keep only what you need.
Still stuck?
Open a support ticket from Support → Tickets if snapshot create/restore fails or the used/max counter looks wrong.
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