Creating a Snapshot of a Storage Volume

You can make a copy of a storage volume at any instant. A snapshot of a storage volume is another storage volume.

Source Storage Volume Properties

If the existing storage volume is a bootable storage volume, then the new storage volume is also a boot volume. The new storage volume is an exact copy of the source storage volume, that is independent of the source. If the source storage volume is attached to a running instance, then you must unmount or freeze the disk buffers of the storage volume before taking a snapshot:

umount path-to-disk-mount-point

or

sync
fsfreeze -f path-to-disk-mount-point

After creating the new volume, log in to the instance and enable the original file system. If the file system is unmounted, mount the file system. If the file system is frozen, then unfreeze it using the following command:

fsfreeze -u path-to-disk-mount-point

To create a snapshot of the storage volume:

  1. Log in to the UI and go to the Self Service Portal.
  2. In the Storage tab, select a storage volume that you want to take a snapshot of.
  3. Click Snapshot.
  4. Enter a name and description for the volume snapshot.
  5. (Optional) Modify the size of the volume.
  6. Click OK.

Creating a Snapshot of a Storage Volume Using the CLI or API

Use the following command to create a snapshot of a storage volume:

oracle-compute add storagevolume name size properties [--source_storagevolume_name] source_volume_name

For more information, see CLI Reference for Oracle Compute Cloud Service.

To create a snapshot of a storage volume using the API, use the POST https://api.oc.example.com/storage/volume/ method.

For more information, see REST API Reference for Oracle Compute Cloud Service.