Snapshots

Overview of VergeOS snapshot capabilities including system, partial, VM, tenant, and NAS volume snapshots with instant recovery, application-consistent capture, and flexible restore options.

Snapshots provide nearly-instant, non-disruptive, point-in-time backups that allow for rollback to a previous instance in the event of a hardware failure, faulty application upgrade, VM bluescreen, etc. Snapshot captures and restores can be done at various levels: full system, partial system (select VMs, tenants, VMware services, and volumes based on custom tagging), individual virtual machine, and individual NAS volume.

Key Features

• Instant Recovery – Snapshots can be restored rapidly, minimizing downtime.
• Minimal Storage Impact – They are branched against initial data blocks, reducing additional storage consumption.
• Application-Consistent Snapshots – VergeOS supports quiescent snapshots, ensuring data integrity by freezing disk activity during capture.
• Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) – System snapshots can be synchronized to another VergeOS system for offsite protection.
• Flexible Restore Options – Users can recover individual VMs and tenants, clone copies for testing, or revert entire environments.

Automated Snapshots (Scheduled Snapshots)

Snapshots can be automated to take at regularly-scheduled intervals using snapshot profiles. A snapshot profile consists of one or more profile periods. Each period determines a frequency for taking snapshots and the default retention time. More information about snapshot profiles is available here: Snapshot Profiles (Snapshot Scheduling)

Manual Snapshots

Snapshots can also be taken manually, with settable expiration. Manual snapshots can be useful for backup immediately before a configuration change, upgrade, or maintenance operation.

System Snapshot/Restore

System snapshots can be:

• Full - captures the entire VergeOS system or
• Partial - capture of select VMs, tenants, VMware services, and volumes based on tagging

What can be restored from a System Snapshot?

A system snapshot can be used to restore:

• Entire VergeOS system (Full snapshots only)
• Individual VMs
• Individual tenants

For more information see:

• System Snapshots
• Restores from System Snapshot

VM Snapshot/Restore

VM-level snapshots allow for quiesced capture (requires guest agent) and schedule/retention customizable per individual VM. Partial system snapshots can include/exclude VMs and provide VM quiescing based on custom tagging. For related instructions, see: VM Snapshots and Restores.

Tenant Snapshot/Restore

Individual tenants can be restored from the parent's system snapshot. For related instructions, see: Tenant Restores

Additionally, each tenant can utilize System Snapshots, independently within their own environment, to back up their complete system or partial snapshots based on custom tagging.

NAS Snapshot/Restore

Volume snapshots provide quiesced backup/restore of individual NAS volumes. For related instructions, see: NAS Volume Snapshots and Restores