About Snapshots

A snapshot is a point-in-time image of a volume that enables you to back up your data, create replicas of a volume at the time the snapshot was created, or move data to another Subregion or Region.

General Information

A point-in-time snapshot corresponds to an image of a volume that contains all the information you need to create replicas of this volume, of the same size or larger. A snapshot can be used to back up your data or to share it with other accounts. 3DS OUTSCALE guarantees the persistence of your snapshots and data contained in them.

All snapshots include the required information to create a new volume containing the data stored on the original volume at the time the snapshot was created. Thus, if you delete earlier snapshots, you are still able to restore all the data from the time the snapshot was created.

To identify your resources more easily, you can add tags to them. For more information, see Tagging Your Resources.

Snapshots are placed in a Region and can be used in all the Subregions within this Region. You can copy a snapshot to another Region and therefore use it in the Subregions within it, for example to create exact copies of a volume there. For more information, see About Regions and Subregions.

The number of snapshots you can create depends on the quotas allocated to your account.

A snapshot can be in these different states:

in-queue: The creation request of the snapshot has been received.
pending: The creation process of the snapshot is in progress.
completed: The snapshot is ready and available.

The data contained in a snapshot is considered cut when the snapshot is in the completed state.
error: The creation process of the snapshot has failed.
deleting: The deletion request of the snapshot has been received.

Snapshot Permissions and Copy

You can share snapshots with accounts in the same Region. This enables them to create volumes or OUTSCALE Machine Images (OMIs) from your snapshots, or to copy them to their accounts.

A snapshot you share still belongs to you, and you can add or remove permissions to access it at any time. Only you can delete this snapshot. For more information, see Managing Permissions for a Snapshot.

You can also copy snapshots between accounts in the same Region or in different Regions. Contrary to a shared snapshot, a copy is independent from the source snapshot, has its own ID, and belongs to the owner of the destination account. You can then share it with other accounts, create volumes from it, or delete it.

To copy a snapshot between accounts in the same Region, you can either use the export/import method below, or share the snapshot with the other account who can then copy it. For more information, see Copying a Snapshot in the Same Region.
To copy a snapshot between accounts in different Regions, the owner of the source snapshot first needs to export it to an OUTSCALE Object Storage (OOS) bucket. When using a pre-signed URL for the snapshot, the owner of the other account can then import it, which creates a copy in its own account. For more information, see Tutorial: Copying a Snapshot to a Different Region.

Before exporting an OMI or a snapshot to another Region, you need to make sure that this action is authorized by all applicable third-party licenses. If the export is authorized, only an OMI export guarantees the application of third-party licenses in the target Region, whereas a snapshot export does not.

You can export a snapshot to an OOS bucket to create a backup. For more information, see Exporting a Snapshot to a Bucket.
Copying a snapshot to another Region enables you to back up your data in different Regions that are isolated and independent from one another.

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