CloudShare allows up to five snapshots per blueprint. Taking a new snapshot while already having five saved snapshots deletes the oldest snapshot.
Taking a snapshot is a core feature of CloudShare and one of the most vital maintenance tasks you can perform within your environment. Taking a snapshot saves a complete replica of the environment in its current state as a named backup that can be accessed later. With snapshots, you are not only saving a document, but creating a backup of all of the machines in your environment.
Snapshots back up the entire environment as it is in its current state. This means a complete replica of all of your virtual machines, the RAM, CPU and disk allocations, the network configurations, users, installed software, documents, and settings. Even the current RAM and disk states can be backed up, so any running services and applications you had when you started the snapshot will be saved in that state.
Once you start a snapshot, you can continue working on your machines. Note that any work done after clicking Take Snapshot will not be included in the snapshot that is currently being taken.
1. On the environment's details page (go to the Environments list and then click the environment's name to open the details page), click Take Snapshot.
The Take Snapshot form appears on the page.
2. Complete the fields:
- Publish to the default environment blueprint: Select this option if you want to create a snapshot of the environment in the specified existing blueprint for the environment.
- Publish to a new blueprint: Select this option if you want to publish the snapshot to a new blueprint. If you select this option, the New blueprint name and Project fields appear lower down in the form.
- Snapshot name: A name is suggested. Change it if you prefer.
- Snapshot description: Optionally describe the snapshot to help you identify it for future usage.
- New Blueprint name: This field appears if you selected Publish to a new blueprint above. Enter a name for the new blueprint in which the snapshot will be created.
- Set as default: Select this if you want to mark the snapshot you are taking as the default snapshot in the blueprint. The default snapshot is the snapshot that is used whenever a new environment is created from the blueprint, such as when you create an experience or an end user invitation. This is mandatory for the first snapshot of the environment.
- Project: This field appears if you select Publish to a new blueprint above. Choose one of the following:
- Create in the same project: This option creates a new blueprint in the same project as the default environment blueprint.
- Create in a different project: If you choose this option, select the project in which you want to create the new blueprint from the drop-down.
- Regions: Select any regions to which you want to copy the snapshot. Copying will be done after the snapshot is taken and you will be notified by email when it is completed. Copying is supported from the US East to Asia Pacific and Europe only. If the blueprint already exists in other regions and you check Set as default, the relevant regions are selected here and you cannot deselect them. This ensures that all existing regional copies of the blueprint are updated with the current default snapshot.
Snapshots that are hosted in multiple regions must have the same snapshot in all regions before it can be marked as default, any active experiences that are based on the current default snapshot will use that older default snapshot until the newer snapshot’s transfer to all regions has completed.
3. Click Take Snapshot. The process takes some time. While the snapshot is being created, progress is displayed by a bar at the top of the environment's details page. Once the snapshot is complete, if other regions are selected the snapshot will copy to these regions. Copies are done one at a time according to a queue. If a snapshot is set as default and being copied to other regions, it will change to default once the copies are complete.