Manage Snapshots

PaletteAI VM Launchpad supports VM snapshots for point-in-time backups and VM cloning for duplicating VMs with new identities.

Snapshots

A VirtualMachineSnapshot captures the disk state of a VM at a specific moment. You can restore the VM to that state later or use the snapshot as a source for clones.

Create a Snapshot

1. Navigate to Workloads > Virtual Machines, and select your VM to open the VM detail page.
2. Select the Snapshots tab.
3. Select Take Snapshot.
4. Enter a name for the snapshot or leave blank to use the auto-generated name.
5. Select Create. CDI and the snapshot controller handle the actual snapshot process.

info

If your storage backend supports online snapshots, you can leave the VM running. Otherwise, stop the VM first to ensure the snapshot is consistent.

Restore from a Snapshot

1. Navigate to Workloads > Virtual Machines, and select your VM to open the VM detail page.
2. Select the Snapshots tab.
3. Find the snapshot you want to restore.
4. Select Restore. The VM must be stopped before restoring from a snapshot.
5. Confirm. The VM's disks are replaced with the snapshot contents. The VM may need to be restarted.

warning

Restore overwrites the current disk state. Ensure you have backed up any important data before restoring.

Snapshot Policies

Snapshot Policy defines automatic snapshot schedules. When attached to a VM, the policy creates snapshots on a schedule and prunes old ones based on retention rules.

Create a Snapshot Policy

1. Navigate to Workloads > Snapshot Policies, or create a policy from the VM creation wizard Lifecycle step.

2. Select Create Snapshot Policy.

3. Configure the following fields. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

   Field	Description
   Name	The Kubernetes resource name for the policy, such as daily-backup. Required.
   Display Name	The user-facing name for the policy, such as Daily Backup.
   Description	An optional description for the policy.
   Interval	How often to create snapshots. Select Every hour, Every 4 hours, Every 6 hours, Every 12 hours, Every 24 hours, or Every 7 days. Required.
   Max Retention	The number of snapshots to keep per VM. Older snapshots are pruned automatically. Required.
   Enabled	Enable or disable automatic snapshots for the policy. Enabled by default.

4. (Optional) Under Advanced Options, configure the following fields.

   Field	Description
   Failure Deadline	How long a snapshot can run before it is marked as failed. Select None (no deadline), 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours.
   Retention Days	The number of days to keep snapshots. Enter 0 to use the Max Retention count only.
   Time Window (UTC)	Restrict snapshots to a preferred time-of-day window, in UTC. Select Any time or a preset window, such as 00:00 - 04:00 UTC.
   Snapshot Labels	Select Add label to apply custom key-value labels to the snapshot resources the policy creates.

5. Select Create. The policy is created as a VmSnapshotPolicy resource.

Delete a Snapshot Policy

1. Navigate to Workloads > Snapshot Policies.
2. Select Delete on the policy row, or use the detail drawer's Delete button.
3. Type the policy name to confirm.

If any VMs have this policy attached, the delete is blocked. A dialog shows the list of attached VMs. Detach the policy from those VMs first (via the VM detail page or the Detach action).

Attach a Policy to a VM

Method	Description
At creation	In the VM creation wizard Lifecycle step, select the snapshot policy from the drop-down menu. The policy is attached after the VM is created.
From template	Templates can have a vmo-manager.spectrocloud.com/snapshot-policy annotation. VMs created from the template inherit this policy when the Attach snapshot policy option is selected.
On existing VM	Use the VM detail page or API to attach the policy to an existing VM.

Snapshot Schedules

Snapshot policies use VmSnapshotSchedule resources internally. The scheduler runs periodically, such as every minute, evaluates which VMs are targeted by policies, and creates VirtualMachineSnapshot resources. Snapshots created by policies are labeled vmo-manager.spectrocloud.com/scheduled: "true".

Clone VMs

Cloning creates a new VM with a copy of the source VM's disks. The clone gets a new name and unique identity, such as a new machine ID when the guest agent or cloud-init handles it.

Clone Process

1. Navigate to Workloads > Virtual Machines, and select Clone or use the context menu.

2. In the Clone Virtual Machine dialog, enter a Clone Name.

3. Select a Clone Type.

   Clone Type	Description
   Light Clone	Reuses the original image source. Faster and uses less storage.
   Full Clone	Copies all disk data. The clone is independent of the source VM.

4. (Optional) Select Start VirtualMachine once created to power on the clone after it is created. Otherwise, the clone starts stopped so you can review or adjust it first.

5. Select Clone.

When to Clone

Use case	Description
Duplicate a configured VM	Clone a VM that has software installed or configurations applied.
Test from a known state	Clone a VM to test changes without affecting the original.
Batch similar VMs	Clone once, then customize each clone with settings such as hostname or static IP through cloud-init.

tip

For production workflows, prefer creating VMs from templates with golden images. Cloning is useful for one-off duplicates or when the source VM is a one-off configuration.

Snapshot vs Clone

Operation	Result
Snapshot	Creates a point-in-time copy of the VM's disks. The VM continues running. You can restore to the snapshot later or create a new VM from the snapshot.
Clone	Creates a new VM with cloned disks. The clone is independent. The source VM is unchanged.

Snapshots are for backup and restore. Clones are for duplicating a VM into a new instance.