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Manage Snapshots
Snapshots are point-of-time backup copies of managed vector databases on Zilliz Cloud. You can use it as a baseline for new databases or just for data backup. This guide demonstrates how you can create a snapshot of a database, restore the snapshot to create a new database, and delete the snapshot if it is no longer needed.
Currently, this feature applies only to the databases deployed in the AWS regions.
Create a snapshot
Snapshots occur asynchronously. The time spent taking one varies with the size of the database and that of the CU accommodating the database. For a single-collection database holding over 120 million records of 128-dimensional vectors on a 4-CU instance, creating a snapshot takes just about 5 minutes.
You can take a snapshot of your database by referring to the following figure. Your database is still in service while Zilliz Cloud is taking the snapshot.
Create a snapshot
You can determine how long Zilliz Cloud keeps your snapshot by setting Retention Period in days. The default retention period is currently 7 days, with a maximum of 30 days.
- Data transfer used to create the snapshots is separately charged at the rate of $0.025/GB. For example, a 20 GB snapshot will incur a one-time data transfer charge of $0.025 x 20 = $0.5.
- Currently, a snapshot can live on Zilliz Cloud for up to 30 days free of charge.
Create a snapshot schedule
Also, you can create a snapshot schedule for a database so that Zilliz Cloud can take regular snapshots.
Edit a snapshot schedule
A record appears in the Snapshots list immediately after a snapshot occurs. However, you will not be able to use the snapshot until its status changes to AVAILABLE.
You can cancel any CREATING snapshot records at any time. In such a case, its status will change to CANCELLING and finally to CANCELLED.
View snapshot details
As soon as you create a snapshot, a snapshot record will be listed with the status of CREATING. You can click the name of the snapshot to view its details or click … in Actions and select Show collection to check just the collections included in the snapshot.
View snapshot details
Restore a snapshot
You can only restore the snapshots in the AVAILABLE state. To restore a snapshot, click … in Actions and select Restore database.
Then you need to set certain attributes for the database to be restored from the snapshot.
Restore database
While setting these attributes, note that:
- You can restore from a snapshot to create a target database in a different project, but not in a different cloud region.
- You can choose to retain the load status of the collections in the target database.
- You can rename the target database and reset its size and password.
Once you click Restore in Restore Database, Zilliz Cloud will start creating the target database with the specified attributes and then restore the collections in the snapshot to the target database.
After the status of the target database changes from CREATING to RESTORING, a record appears in the Restore History list of the source database.
View restore history
Delete snapshot
Zilliz Cloud automatically removes the snapshots when they reach the end of their retention period. You can manually delete any available snapshots before then.
Delete snapshot
You will be prompted to verify your request to delete a snapshot before Zilliz Cloud actually performs the deletion.