Latchu@DevOps

Posted on Aug 28

Part-31: 💾 Google Cloud Platform – Working with VM Disk Snapshots (GCP)

#googlecloud #gcp #cloud #tutorial

Snapshots are a powerful way to protect and restore data in Google Cloud Compute Engine. A snapshot is essentially a backup of a persistent disk that you can later use to:

Recover data if the disk is corrupted
Create new disks or VM instances quickly
Set up backup schedules for compliance and availability

In this tutorial, we’ll go step by step to:

Create a snapshot from an existing VM disk
Review snapshot properties
Create a new VM or disk from a snapshot
Set up snapshot schedules

🔹 Step 1: Start the VM

For this demo, we’ll use an existing VM (demo8-vm1).

👉 Console:

Go to Compute Engine → VM Instances → demo8-vm1 → Actions → Start

🔹 Step 2: Create a Snapshot

You can create a snapshot directly from a VM’s disk.

Option 1 (from Disk):

👉 Compute Engine → Storage → Disks → demo8-vm1 → Actions → Create Snapshot

Option 2 (from Snapshots page):

👉 Compute Engine → Storage → Snapshots → Create Snapshot

Fill details:

Name: demo8-vm1-snapshot-1
Description: demo8-vm1-snapshot-1
Source disk: demo8-vm1
Location: Multi-regional → us
Encryption: Use same encryption as disk
Application consistency: unchecked
Click Create ✅

CLI Equivalent:

# Create Snapshot
gcloud compute snapshots create demo8-vm1-snapshot \
    --project=gcpdemos \
    --description=demo8-vm1-snapshot \
    --source-disk=demo8-vm1 \
    --source-disk-zone=us-central1-a \
    --storage-location=us

🔹 Step 3: Review Snapshot Properties

👉 Go to Compute Engine → Storage → Snapshots → demo8-vm1-snapshot

Here you can review:

Size
Storage location
Source disk
Creation timestamp

Snapshots are incremental in GCP → only changes since the last snapshot are stored, saving cost and time.

🔹 Step 4: Create VM or Disk using Snapshot

Snapshots aren’t just backups—you can also use them to spin up new resources.

👉 From Snapshots → demo8-vm1-snapshot → Actions:

Create Instance → Launch a new VM from snapshot
Create Disk → Provision a new persistent disk from snapshot

This makes snapshots super useful for cloning environments (like dev/test copies of production).

VM instance is created from the snapshot

If you access the server through browser

🔹 Step 5: Snapshot Schedules

Manually creating snapshots is fine, but production systems need automated protection.

Snapshot schedules let you define policies like:

Frequency: Hourly, Daily, Weekly

Auto-deletion: e.g., keep snapshots only for 14 days

Deletion Rule:

Keep snapshots indefinitely
Delete older snapshots automatically

👉 Example:

Take a daily snapshot
Retain only last 14 days
Auto-delete older ones

This ensures you always have recent backups without excessive cost.

✅ Final Thoughts

Snapshots in GCP are lightweight, incremental, and multi-regional, making them ideal for backups.
You can restore, clone, or create new VMs/disks from them.
Schedules help automate backups and manage retention.