Create a snapshot

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Take a snapshot of an OS or data disk for backup or to troubleshoot VM issues. A snapshot is a full, read-only copy of a VHD.

Use Azure CLI

The following example requires that you use Cloud Shell or have the Azure CLI installed.

The following steps show how to take a snapshot using the az snapshot create command with the --source-disk parameter. The following example assumes that there is a VM called myVM in the myResourceGroup resource group.

Get the disk ID using az vm show.

osDiskId=$(az vm show \
   -g myResourceGroup \
   -n myVM \
   --query "storageProfile.osDisk.managedDisk.id" \
   -o tsv)

Take a snapshot named osDisk-backup using az snapshot create.

az snapshot create \
    -g myResourceGroup \
    --source "$osDiskId" \
    --name osDisk-backup

Note

If you would like to store your snapshot in zone-resilient storage, you need to create it in a region that supports availability zones and include the --sku Standard_ZRS parameter.

You can see a list of the snapshots using az snapshot list.

az snapshot list \
   -g myResourceGroup \
   - table

Use Azure portal

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
  2. Starting in the upper-left, click Create a resource and search for snapshot. Select Snapshot from the search results.
  3. In the Snapshot blade, click Create.
  4. Enter a Name for the snapshot.
  5. Select an existing resource group or type the name for a new one.
  6. For Source disk, select the managed disk to snapshot.
  7. Select the Account type to use to store the snapshot. Use Standard HDD unless you need it stored on a high performing SSD.
  8. Click Create.

Next steps

Create a virtual machine from a snapshot by creating a managed disk from the snapshot and then attaching the new managed disk as the OS disk. For more information, see the Create a VM from a snapshot script.