How backups and snapshots protect your data

Data can be lost to a mistake, a bad update, an attack or a failed disk. A copy taken beforehand lets you go back. Coritan keeps two kinds of copy, which differ in what they hold and where they are kept:

Snapshot

The state of a disk, or of a server's files, at one moment. It is quick to take and quick to go back to, which suits a restore point before a risky change.

Backup

A copy kept apart from what it protects, so that it survives when the original is rebuilt or damaged.

An instance has both kinds.

• A snapshot lives on the same storage as the instance's disk, and an instance holds 8 at a time. Rebuilding or cancelling the instance deletes its snapshots (Take and roll back instance snapshots).
• A backup is a compressed archive of the whole disk, kept apart from it, and an instance holds 16. Backups survive a rebuild, and cancelling the instance deletes them (Back up and restore an instance).

A server has snapshots: archives of its files, kept in your account's snapshot storage. A snapshot stays on your account after you delete the server, and you can restore it onto another of your servers. Your account's snapshot allowance sets how much room they may take (How snapshot storage works).

Snapshots have replaced backups on Container Apps. A server keeps the backups it already had, and you cannot take new ones (Snapshots and backups compared).

Neither a snapshot nor a backup holds the databases on a server's Databases tab. Export those with a plugin or a MySQL client (Create and manage server databases).

A copy on a service goes with that service: cancelling an instance deletes its snapshots and its backups. For data you cannot afford to lose, keep another copy away from it as well:

• Download a server snapshot's archive from the Snapshots page, and lock the snapshots you want to keep so that nobody deletes them by mistake (Lock, download and delete snapshots).
• Copy files from an instance to a bucket in Object Storage with an S3 tool such as rclone (Connect an S3 client).

• Store files and backups
• Take a server snapshot
• Back up and restore an instance
• How snapshot storage works