Manage disk snapshots

---

Standard disk snapshots help you to periodically back up data from your Persistent Disk and Google Cloud Hyperdisk.

You can view, list, and delete disk snapshots. You can also share snapshots across projects.

Before you begin

• If you haven't already, then set up authentication. Authentication is the process by which your identity is verified for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:
  

  Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

  Console

  When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

  gcloud

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:

     gcloud init

     Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.
  2. Set a default region and zone.

  REST

  To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.

  Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:

  gcloud init

  For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles and permissions

To get the permissions that you need to manage standard snapshots, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project:

• Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1)
• To connect to a VM that can run as a service account: Service Account User (v1) (roles/iam.serviceAccountUser)

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to manage standard snapshots. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to manage standard snapshots:

• To list snapshots: compute.snapshots.list on the project
• To view information about a snapshot: compute.snapshots.get on the snapshot
• To delete a snapshot: compute.snapshots.delete on the snapshot
• To delete snapshots based on a filter:
  • compute.snapshots.delete on the snapshot
  • compute.snapshots.list on the project
• To share snapshot data across projects:
  • compute.storageAdmin on the project (for accessing all standard snapshots)
  • compute.disks.create on the project to share with
  • compute.snapshots.create on the source project
  • compute.disks.createSnapshot on the source disk

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

View the standard snapshots in a project or location

You can view or list the standard snapshots in a project or location by using the gcloud CLI, Google Cloud console, or the REST.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Snapshots page.

   Go to the Snapshots page

2. On the Snapshots tab, you can see the standard snapshots for the current project.

3. Optional. Narrow your results with the filter_list Filter field. Enter a property name or value in the Filter field, or choose from the available properties.

gcloud

To see a list of snapshots available to you in a particular project, use the gcloud compute snapshots list command.

gcloud compute snapshots list --project=PROJECT_ID

Optional. Replace PROJECT_ID with the project ID. If you omit this flag, then the current project is used. You can set the default project for your session by using the gcloud CLI command gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID.

REST

To see a list of snapshots available to you in a particular project, make a GET request to the snapshots.list method.

GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/snapshots

Replace PROJECT_ID with the project ID.

View the standard snapshots for a disk

You can view the list of standard snapshots for a disk by using the Google Cloud console, gcloud CLI,or REST.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Snapshots page.

   Go to the Snapshots page

2. On the Snapshots tab, a list of all the standard snapshots in the project appears.

3. Narrow the results by source disk:

   1. Enter Source disk: in the filter_list Filter field, or click the Filter field and then choose the value Source disk from the Properties list.

   2. Select the name of the disk from the Values list that appears next to Source disk: in the Filter field.

      The snapshots displayed in the console now shows all standard snapshots for the specified disk.

      If you don't see the name of a disk in the Values list, then in the Filter field next to Source disk:, type in the first few letters of the source disk's name to change the list of values that you see.

gcloud

List the standard snapshots for a disk with the gcloud compute snapshots list command and the --filter argument.

• List the standard snapshots for a zonal disk:

  gcloud compute snapshots list --filter="sourceDisk:projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/SOURCE_ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME
  

• List the standard snapshots for a regional disk:

  gcloud compute snapshots list --filter=sourceDisk:projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/SOURCE_REGION/disks/DISK_NAME
  

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project.
• SOURCE_ZONE: (Zonal disks only) the name of the zone for the disk, for example, us-west1-a.
• SOURCE_REGION: (Regional disks only) the name of the region for the disk, for example, us-west1.
• DISK_NAME: the name of the disk, for example, disk-1.

REST

List the standard snapshots for a zonal or regional disk with a GET request to the snapshots.list method.

Use the filter=sourceDisk query parameter to specify the name of the disk.

• List the standard snapshots for a zonal disk:

  GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/snapshots?filter=sourceDisk:'https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/SOURCE_ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME'
  

• List the standard snapshots for a regional disk:

  GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/snapshots?filter=sourceDisk:'https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/SOURCE_REGION/disks/DISK_NAME'
  

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project.
• SOURCE_ZONE: (Zonal disks only) the name of the zone for the disk, for example, us-west1-a.
• SOURCE_REGION: (Regional disks only) the name of the region for the disk, for example, us-west1.
• DISK_NAME: the name of the source disk, for example disk-1.

View information about a standard snapshot

Retrieve detailed information about a standard snapshot, such as its creation time, source disk, and size by using the Google Cloud console, Google Cloud CLI, or REST.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Snapshots page.

   Go to the Snapshots page

2. On the Snapshots tab, view the list of snapshots in the project.

3. In the Name column, click the name of the standard snapshot. The Snapshot details page for the selected snapshot appears, showing its properties.

gcloud

To view information about a standard snapshot, use the gcloud compute snapshots describe command.

gcloud compute snapshots describe SNAPSHOT_NAME

Replace SNAPSHOT_NAME with the name of the standard snapshot.

REST

Make a GET request to the snapshots.get method.

GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/snapshots/SNAPSHOT_NAME

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: the name of the project containing the standard snapshot.
• SNAPSHOT_NAME: the name of the standard snapshot.

Delete a snapshot

Warning: Deleting a snapshot is irreversible. You can't recover a deleted snapshot.

Compute Engine uses differential snapshots so that each snapshot contains only the data that has changed since the previous snapshot. Because subsequent snapshots might require information stored in a previous snapshot, keep in mind that deleting a snapshot does not necessarily delete all the data on the snapshot.

To learn more about snapshot deletion, see Snapshot deletion.

Console

1. Go to the Snapshots page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to the Snapshots page

2. Select one or more snapshots that you want to delete.

3. At the top of the Snapshots page, click Delete.

gcloud

To delete a snapshot, use the gcloud compute snapshots delete command.

gcloud compute snapshots delete SNAPSHOT_NAME

Replace SNAPSHOT_NAME with the name of the snapshot that you want to delete.

Go

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	compute "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1"
	computepb "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1/computepb"
)

// deleteSnapshot deletes a snapshot of a disk.
func deleteSnapshot(w io.Writer, projectID, snapshotName string) error {
	// projectID := "your_project_id"
	// snapshotName := "your_snapshot_name"

	ctx := context.Background()
	snapshotsClient, err := compute.NewSnapshotsRESTClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("NewSnapshotsRESTClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer snapshotsClient.Close()

	req := &computepb.DeleteSnapshotRequest{
		Project:  projectID,
		Snapshot: snapshotName,
	}

	op, err := snapshotsClient.Delete(ctx, req)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to delete snapshot: %w", err)
	}

	if err = op.Wait(ctx); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to wait for the operation: %w", err)
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Snapshot deleted\n")

	return nil
}

Java

import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.Operation;
import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.SnapshotsClient;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

public class DeleteSnapshot {

  public static void main(String[] args)
      throws IOException, ExecutionException, InterruptedException, TimeoutException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.

    // Project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use.
    String projectId = "YOUR_PROJECT_ID";

    // Name of the snapshot to be deleted.
    String snapshotName = "YOUR_SNAPSHOT_NAME";

    deleteSnapshot(projectId, snapshotName);
  }

  // Delete a snapshot of a disk.
  public static void deleteSnapshot(String projectId, String snapshotName)
      throws IOException, ExecutionException, InterruptedException, TimeoutException {

    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. After completing all of your requests, call
    // the `snapshotsClient.close()` method on the client to safely
    // clean up any remaining background resources.
    try (SnapshotsClient snapshotsClient = SnapshotsClient.create()) {

      Operation operation = snapshotsClient.deleteAsync(projectId, snapshotName)
          .get(3, TimeUnit.MINUTES);

      if (operation.hasError()) {
        System.out.println("Snapshot deletion failed!" + operation);
        return;
      }

      System.out.println("Snapshot deleted!");
    }
  }
}

Node.js

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment and replace these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';
// const snapshotName = 'YOUR_SNAPSHOT_NAME';

const compute = require('@google-cloud/compute');

async function deleteSnapshot() {
  const snapshotsClient = new compute.SnapshotsClient();

  const [response] = await snapshotsClient.delete({
    project: projectId,
    snapshot: snapshotName,
  });
  let operation = response.latestResponse;
  const operationsClient = new compute.GlobalOperationsClient();

  // Wait for the create disk operation to complete.
  while (operation.status !== 'DONE') {
    [operation] = await operationsClient.wait({
      operation: operation.name,
      project: projectId,
    });
  }

  console.log('Snapshot deleted.');
}

deleteSnapshot();

Python

from __future__ import annotations

import sys
from typing import Any

from google.api_core.extended_operation import ExtendedOperation
from google.cloud import compute_v1


def wait_for_extended_operation(
    operation: ExtendedOperation, verbose_name: str = "operation", timeout: int = 300
) -> Any:
    """
    Waits for the extended (long-running) operation to complete.

    If the operation is successful, it will return its result.
    If the operation ends with an error, an exception will be raised.
    If there were any warnings during the execution of the operation
    they will be printed to sys.stderr.

    Args:
        operation: a long-running operation you want to wait on.
        verbose_name: (optional) a more verbose name of the operation,
            used only during error and warning reporting.
        timeout: how long (in seconds) to wait for operation to finish.
            If None, wait indefinitely.

    Returns:
        Whatever the operation.result() returns.

    Raises:
        This method will raise the exception received from `operation.exception()`
        or RuntimeError if there is no exception set, but there is an `error_code`
        set for the `operation`.

        In case of an operation taking longer than `timeout` seconds to complete,
        a `concurrent.futures.TimeoutError` will be raised.
    """
    result = operation.result(timeout=timeout)

    if operation.error_code:
        print(
            f"Error during {verbose_name}: [Code: {operation.error_code}]: {operation.error_message}",
            file=sys.stderr,
            flush=True,
        )
        print(f"Operation ID: {operation.name}", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
        raise operation.exception() or RuntimeError(operation.error_message)

    if operation.warnings:
        print(f"Warnings during {verbose_name}:\n", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
        for warning in operation.warnings:
            print(f" - {warning.code}: {warning.message}", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)

    return result


def delete_snapshot(project_id: str, snapshot_name: str) -> None:
    """
    Delete a snapshot of a disk.

    Args:
        project_id: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use.
        snapshot_name: name of the snapshot to delete.
    """

    snapshot_client = compute_v1.SnapshotsClient()
    operation = snapshot_client.delete(project=project_id, snapshot=snapshot_name)

    wait_for_extended_operation(operation, "snapshot deletion")

REST

Make a DELETE request to the snapshots.delete method to delete snapshots.

DELETE https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/snapshots/SNAPSHOT_NAME

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: the name of your project
• SNAPSHOT_NAME: the name of the snapshot to delete.

Delete multiple snapshots based on a filter

Warning: Deleting a snapshot is irreversible. You can't recover a deleted snapshot.

Compute Engine uses differential snapshots so that each snapshot contains only the data that has changed since the previous snapshot. Because subsequent snapshots might require information stored in a previous snapshot, deleting a snapshot does not necessarily delete all the data on the snapshot.

To learn more about snapshot deletion, see Snapshot deletion.

You can delete a number of snapshots based on a given filter. For more information on how to use filters with the gcloud CLI, see gcloud CLI topic filters.

To delete the snapshots, use a combination of the gcloud compute snapshots list command with a given filter, and the gcloud compute snapshots delete command with xargs.

  gcloud compute snapshots list --filter="EXPRESSION" --uri |
  xargs gcloud compute snapshots delete
  

Replace EXPRESSION with a gcloud CLI topic filter.

For example, --filter="creationTimestamp<'2023-12-31'" deletes all snapshots created before December 31, 2023.

Share snapshot data across projects in the same organization

You can use this procedure to move data from a disk in one project to a disk in a different project within the same organization.

gcloud

1. Create a standard snapshot in the destination project by using the gcloud compute snapshots create command. For example, to create a snapshot of a zonal Persistent Disk or Hyperdisk, use the following command:

   gcloud compute snapshots create SNAPSHOT_NAME \
    --source-disk https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/SOURCE_PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/disks/SOURCE_DISK_NAME \
    --project DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID
   

   Replace the following:

   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: A name for the new snapshot.
   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project for the source disk.
   • ZONE: The zone of the source disk.
   • SOURCE_DISK_NAME: The name of the source disk.
   • DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the destination project for the new snapshot.

2. In the destination project, create a zonal or regional disk that's based on the snapshot by using the gcloud compute disks create command:

   gcloud compute disks create DISK_NAME \
    --source-snapshot SNAPSHOT_NAME \
    --project DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID
   

   Replace the following:

   • DISK_NAME: A name for the new disk.
   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: The name of the snapshot.
   • DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the destination project for the new disk.

REST

1. Create a standard snapshot in the destination project by calling the snapshots.insert method. For example, to take a snapshot of a zonal Persistent Disk or Hyperdisk, make the following request:

   POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID/global/snapshots
   {
    "name": SNAPSHOT_NAME
    "sourceDisk": "projects/SOURCE_PROJECT_ID/zones/SOURCE_ZONE/disks/SOURCE_DISK_NAME
   }
   

   Replace the following:

   • DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the destination project for the new snapshot.
   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: A name for the snapshot.
   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the source disk project.
   • SOURCE_ZONE: The zone of the source disk.
   • SOURCE_DISK_NAME: The name of the source disk.

2. In the destination project, create a zonal or regional disk that's based on the snapshot by using the zonal disks.insert method or the regional regionDisks.insert method.

   For example, to create a zonal disk, make the following request:

   POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID/zones/DESTINATION_ZONE/disks
   {
    "name": DISK_NAME
    "sourceSnapshot": SNAPSHOT_NAME
   }
   

   Replace the following:

   • DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the destination project for the new disk.
   • DESTINATION_ZONE: The zone in the destination project for the new disk.
   • DISK_NAME: A name for the new disk.
   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: The name of the snapshot.

To get a list of snapshots available to you, see View the standard snapshots in a project or location.

Share a snapshot across projects in different organizations

You can use this procedure to share a standard snapshot in a project in one organization with a different project in another organization.

gcloud

1. In the source project, create a disk that's based on the snapshot by using the gcloud compute disks create command.

   gcloud compute disks create DISK_NAME \
    --source-snapshot SNAPSHOT_NAME \
    --project SOURCE_PROJECT_ID \
    --zone ZONE
   

   Replace the following:

   • DISK_NAME: A name for the new disk.
   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: The name of the snapshot.
   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the source project.
   • ZONE: The zone to create the new disk in.

   This disk is a temporary disk that is created only to copy the snapshot across organizations.

2. In the destination project, create a snapshot by using the gcloud compute snapshots create command.

   For example, to create a snapshot using the zonal disk created in the first step, use the following command:

   gcloud compute snapshots create SNAPSHOT_NAME \
    --source-disk https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/SOURCE_PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME \
    --project DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID
   

   Replace the following:

   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: A name for the snapshot.
   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that contains the source disk.
   • ZONE: The zone of the source disk.
   • DISK_NAME: The name of the disk created in step 1.
   • DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the destination project for the new snapshot.

   To get a list of snapshots available to you, see View the standard snapshots in a project or location.

3. Delete the temporary disk created in the first step using the gcloud compute disks delete command.

   gcloud compute disks delete DISK_NAME \
    --project SOURCE_PROJECT_ID --zone ZONE
   

   Replace the following:

   • DISK_NAME: The name of the disk created in step 1.
   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that contains the source disk.
   • ZONE: The zone of the disk.

REST

1. In the source project, create a zonal or regional disk that's based on the snapshot by using the zonal disks.insert method.

   For example, to create a zonal disk, make the following request:

   POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/SOURCE_PROJECT_ID/zones/SOURCE_ZONE/disks
   {
    "name": DISK_NAME
    "sourceSnapshot": SNAPSHOT_NAME
   }
   

   Replace the following:

   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the source project for the new disk.
   • SOURCE_ZONE: The zone for new disk.
   • DISK_NAME: A name for the new disk.
   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: The name of the snapshot.

   This disk is a temporary disk that is created only to copy the snapshot across organizations.

2. Create a snapshot in the destination project by calling the snapshots.insert method.

   For example, to create a snapshot using the zonal disk created in the first step, use the following command:

   POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID/global/snapshots
   {
      "name": SNAPSHOT_NAME
      "sourceDisk": "projects/SOURCE_PROJECT_ID/zones/SOURCE_ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME
   }
   

   Replace the following:

   • DESTINATION_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the destination project for the new snapshot.
   • SNAPSHOT_NAME: A name for the snapshot.
   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that contains the source disk.
   • SOURCE_ZONE: The zone of the source disk.
   • DISK_NAME: The name of the source disk.

3. Delete the temporary disk created in the first step using the disks.delete method.

   DELETE https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/SOURCE_PROJECT_ID/zones/SOURCE_ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME
   

   Replace the following:

   • SOURCE_PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that contains the temporary disk.
   • SOURCE_ZONE: The zone of the disk.
   • DISK_NAME: The name of the temporary disk created in step 1.

What's next

• Learn how to create scheduled snapshots for disks.
• Learn how to create a disk image from your snapshot.