Create a snapshot | ibee

Manual snapshots produce an on-demand Recovery Point for a Cloud VM. They include the root disk and, optionally, attached data volumes. Use snapshots before risky changes, or as a clone source for new VMs via restore.

Steps

1. Open Snapshots

On the server detail page, open the Snapshots tab. The first time you visit, an info banner reminds you that restoring a snapshot will stop the server briefly, roll back the disk, and start it again automatically.

2. Add a label and (optional) description

Under Create Snapshot:

Label (required) — short, human-readable name. Example: pre-deploy-2026-05-09.
Description (optional) — context like the change you’re about to make. Example: Snapshot before upgrading Postgres to 17.

Use clear, dated labels. Recovery points are also tagged with a system-generated identifier (srp-20260509T162709Z) but the label is what you’ll see first in the list.

3. Pick a Capture Mode

Three modes are offered. Root volume is always captured; the mode controls what else is included.

Mode	Capture
Root volume only	Boot disk only. Attached data volumes are skipped.
All attached volumes	Root disk plus every attached persistent data volume.
Selective volumes	Root plus the data volumes you tick from the Select Data Volumes list.

A green confirmation banner — Root volume is always included — appears regardless of mode.

4. (Selective only) Pick data volumes

For Selective volumes, the Select Data Volumes list appears with each attached volume’s:

Label (for example testblockstorage)
Size and device path (for example 10 GB · vdc · /mnt/volume_<id>)

Tick the boxes for the volumes to include. The header shows a running count (1 selected, 2 selected, …).

5. Create the snapshot

Click Create Snapshot in the bottom-right of the form. The platform briefly captures the disks and produces a recovery point.

A success toast — Snapshot set created — confirms the operation. The new entry appears in Recovery Points.

What you get

Each recovery point shows:

Snapshot — your label, plus the system identifier (srp-<timestamp>).
Disks — what was captured (Root + 1 data disk, etc.) with the provisioned disk size displayed for each volume.
Created — date and time.
Storage — total recovery storage used (provisioned size, not compressed size).
Actions — Details, Restore, Delete.

Click Details to inspect the captured disks (root vs. data, target devices, filesystem types, and disk sizes) and copy mount instructions for any data volumes.

Capture mode tips

Root volume only is the fastest and smallest. Use when you’re protecting only the OS install.
All attached volumes is the safest default for production. Use when data and root must be recoverable together.
Selective volumes is useful when one volume holds large, unimportant data (build cache, temp files) and you want to skip it.

Best practices

Use descriptive, dated labels so you can find the right recovery point later.
Quiesce the workload if you need a transactionally consistent snapshot — flush database buffers (pg_start_backup, FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK) before snapshotting, or stop the application briefly.
Test restore periodically with Create New VM to confirm your snapshots are usable.
Delete old snapshots you no longer need — recovery storage is billed.

Verify

Switch to the Recovery Points section at the bottom of the Snapshots tab. The new row should match your label and show Storage (provisioned disk size) and Created values. If it shows Loading snapshots… or No snapshots yet, refresh after a few seconds.

Troubleshooting

Create button is disabled Enter a label — it’s required.

Snapshot stuck in progress Open the Activity feed. A failed VM snapshot_create event will show with a message you can act on.

Selective volumes list is empty The VM has no attached data volumes. Either switch to Root volume only or attach a block storage volume first.