Snapshot

An Azure Snapshot is a point-in-time copy of a virtual machine (VM) disk. It captures the contents of a disk at a specific moment and creates a read-only copy that can be used to restore or create new virtual machines. Azure Snapshots provide a way to create a backup of a virtual machine disk without having to shut down the virtual machine. They are incremental in nature, meaning that only the changes made to the original disk since the last snapshot are saved, reducing the storage required for each snapshot. Snapshots are stored in Azure Storage and can be used to create new virtual machines or to restore an existing virtual machine to a previous state. They can also be used to migrate virtual machines between Azure regions or to recover from data corruption or other system failures.‍

Terraform Name

azurerm_snapshot

Snapshot

attributes:

The following arguments are supported:

name - (Required) Specifies the name of the Snapshot resource. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.
resource_group_name - (Required) The name of the resource group in which to create the Snapshot. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.
location - (Required) Specifies the supported Azure location where the resource exists. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.
create_option - (Required) Indicates how the snapshot is to be created. Possible values are Copy or Import.

Note:

One of source_uri, source_resource_id or storage_account_id must be specified.

source_uri - (Optional) Specifies the URI to a Managed or Unmanaged Disk. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.
source_resource_id - (Optional) Specifies a reference to an existing snapshot, when create_option is Copy. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.
storage_account_id - (Optional) Specifies the ID of an storage account. Used with source_uri to allow authorization during import of unmanaged blobs from a different subscription. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.
disk_size_gb - (Optional) The size of the Snapshotted Disk in GB.
encryption_settings - (Optional) A encryption_settings block as defined below.

NOTE:

Removing encryption_settings forces a new resource to be created.

incremental_enabled - (Optional) Specifies if the Snapshot is incremental.
tags - (Optional) A mapping of tags to assign to the resource.

The encryption_settings block supports:

disk_encryption_key - (Optional) A disk_encryption_key block as defined below.
key_encryption_key - (Optional) A key_encryption_key block as defined below.

The disk_encryption_key block supports:

secret_url - (Required) The URL to the Key Vault Secret used as the Disk Encryption Key. This can be found as id on the azurerm_key_vault_secret resource.
source_vault_id - (Required) The ID of the source Key Vault. This can be found as id on the azurerm_key_vault resource.

The key_encryption_key block supports:

key_url - (Required) The URL to the Key Vault Key used as the Key Encryption Key. This can be found as id on the azurerm_key_vault_key resource.
source_vault_id - (Required) The ID of the source Key Vault. This can be found as id on the azurerm_key_vault resource.

‍

Associating resources with a

Snapshot

Resources do not "belong" to a

Snapshot

Rather, one or more Security Groups are associated to a resource.

Create

Snapshot

via Terraform:

The following HCL manages a disk snapshot

Syntax:

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "example" {
name = "snapshot-rg"
location = "West Europe"
}

resource "azurerm_managed_disk" "example" {
name = "managed-disk"
location = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
storage_account_type = "Standard_LRS"
create_option = "Empty"
disk_size_gb = "10"
}

resource "azurerm_snapshot" "example" {
name = "snapshot"
location = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
create_option = "Copy"
source_uri = azurerm_managed_disk.example.id
}

Create

Snapshot

via CLI:

Parameters:

az snapshot create --name
--resource-group
[--accelerated-network {false, true}]
[--architecture {Arm64, x64}]
[--copy-start {false, true}]
[--disk-access]
[--disk-encryption-set]
[--edge-zone]
[--encryption-type {EncryptionAtRestWithCustomerKey, EncryptionAtRestWithPlatformAndCustomerKeys, EncryptionAtRestWithPlatformKey}]
[--for-upload {false, true}]
[--hyper-v-generation {V1, V2}]
[--incremental {false, true}]
[--location]
[--network-access-policy {AllowAll, AllowPrivate, DenyAll}]
[--no-wait]
[--public-network-access {Disabled, Enabled}]
[--size-gb]
[--sku {Premium_LRS, Standard_LRS, Standard_ZRS}]
[--source]
[--source-storage-account-id]
[--tags]

Example:

az snapshot create -g MyResourceGroup -n MySnapshot2 --source MyDisk

Costs

Direct Cost

Indirect Cost

No items found.

Best Practices for

Snapshot

Categorized by Availability, Security & Compliance and Cost

Medium

AMI (Amazon Machine Images) not in use

AWS Cost Optimization