Create a snapshot to preserve the state of your data

This guide shows you how to create a snapshot to preserve the state of your Filestore data. To learn more about snapshots, see Snapshots.

Create a snapshot

You can create a snapshot of an instance using one of the following methods:

Google Cloud console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore instances page.

    Go to the Filestore instances page

  2. Click the instance that you want to create a snapshot of.

  3. Click the Snapshots tab and then click Create snapshot.

  4. For Snapshot ID, enter a name for the snapshot. The file share name and snapshot ID can have a combined length of up to 77 characters.

  5. Optional: Add a description or labels to the snapshot.

  6. Click Create.

gcloud CLI

To create a snapshot of an instance, run the instances snapshots create command. The --description and --labels flags are added as optional arguments:

gcloud filestore instances snapshots create SNAPSHOT_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --instance-location=LOCATION \
    --description="DESCRIPTION" \
    --labels=KEY=VALUE

Replace the following:

  • SNAPSHOT_ID with the name that you want to give the snapshot. The file share name and snapshot ID can have a combined length of up to 77 characters. For example, my-snapshot-1.
  • INSTANCE_ID with the name of the instance from which you want to create a snapshot. For example, my-instance-1.
  • LOCATION with the zone or region of the instance. For example, us-east1-b or us-central1, respectively. Note that your instance's service tier determines whether a zone or region is a valid argument.
  • DESCRIPTION with a description of the snapshot.
  • KEY=VALUE,... with one or more KEY=VALUE pairs that you want to include.

Example

The following command creates a snapshot of the instance nfs-server, which is located in us-central1. The snapshot is named nfs-server-snapshot.

gcloud filestore instances snapshots create nfs-server-snapshot \
    --instance=nfs-server \
    --instance-location=us-central1 \

List, view, update, and delete snapshots

You can list, view, update, and delete snapshots.

Google Cloud console

To manage your snapshots in the Google Cloud console:

  1. Go to the Filestore instances page.

    Go to the Filestore instances page

  2. Click the instance ID of the instance that you want to view snapshots of.

  3. Click the Snapshots tab.

From the Snapshots tab:

  • To see details about a snapshot, click its snapshot ID.
  • To edit a snapshot, click Edit in the snapshots details page.
  • To delete a snapshot:
  1. Click the snapshot ID of the snapshot that you want to delete.
  2. Click Delete.
  3. When prompted, type the snapshot ID.
  4. Click Delete.

gcloud CLI

List all snapshots in your current project

To view a list of snapshots for an instance, run the instances snapshots list command:

gcloud filestore instances snapshots list \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --instance-location=LOCATION

Replace the following:

  • INSTANCE_ID with the name of the instance from which you want to create a list of snapshots. For example, my-instance-1.
  • LOCATION with the zone or region of the instance. For example, us-east1-b or us-central1, respectively. Note that your instance's service tier determines whether a zone or region is a valid argument.

View information about a snapshot

To view information about a snapshot, run the instances snapshots describe command:

gcloud filestore instances snapshots describe SNAPSHOT_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --instance-location=LOCATION

Replace the following:

  • SNAPSHOT_ID with the name that you want to give the snapshot. For example, my-snapshot-1.
  • INSTANCE_ID with the name of the instance from which the snapshot was created. For example, my-instance-1.
  • LOCATION with the zone or region of the instance from which the snapshot was created. For example, us-east1-b or us-central1, respectively. Note that your instance's service tier determines whether a zone or region is a valid argument.

Update a snapshot

To update a snapshot, run the instances snapshots update command. The --description and --update-labels flags are added as optional arguments:

gcloud filestore instances snapshots update SNAPSHOT_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --instance-location=LOCATION \
    --description="NEW-DESCRIPTION" \
    --update-labels=KEY1=VALUE1,KEY2=VALUE2...

Replace the following:

  • SNAPSHOT_ID with the name that you want to give the snapshot. For example, my-snapshot-1.
  • INSTANCE_ID with the name of the instance from which the snapshot was created. For example, my-instance-1.
  • LOCATION with the zone or region of the instance from which the snapshot was created. For example, us-east1-b or us-central1, respectively. Note that your instance's service tier determines whether a zone or region is a valid argument.
  • NEW-DESCRIPTION with a new description of the snapshot.
  • KEY1=VALUE1,... with one or more KEY=VALUE pairs that you want to update. If a label exists, its value is updated, otherwise a new label is created.

Delete a snapshot

Snapshot deletion is a long running operation that can take multiple hours to complete, depending the number of files involved.

To delete a snapshot, run the instances snapshots delete command:

gcloud filestore instances snapshots delete SNAPSHOT_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --instance-location=LOCATION \

Replace the following:

  • SNAPSHOT_ID with the name that you want to give the snapshot. For example, my-snapshot-1.
  • INSTANCE_ID with the name of the instance from which the snapshot was created. For example, my-instance-1.
  • LOCATION with the zone or region of the instance from which the snapshot was created. For example, us-east1-b or us-central1, respectively. Note that your instance's service tier determines whether a zone or region is a valid argument.

Restore data

You can restore individual files from a snapshot or revert the entire file share to a prior snapshot state.

For more information, see Restore a file from a snapshot and Revert an instance to a prior snapshot state.

Monitoring

You can monitor an instance's snapshot capacity using Metrics Explorer. For more information, see Create charts with Metrics Explorer.

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