ec2-create-snapshot
Description
Creates a snapshot of an Amazon EBS volume and stores it in Amazon S3. You can use snapshots for backups, to make identical copies of instance devices, and to save data before shutting down an instance. For more information about Amazon EBS, go to the
When taking a snapshot of a file system, we recommend unmounting it first. This ensures the file system metadata is in a consistent state, that the 'mounted indicator' is cleared, and that all applications using that file system are stopped and in a consistent state. Some file systems, such as xfs, can freeze and unfreeze activity so a snapshot can be made without unmounting.
For Linux/UNIX, enter the following command from the command line.
#umount -d/dev/sdh
For Windows, open Disk Management, right-click the volume to unmount, and select Change Drive Letter and Path. Then, select the mount point to remove and click Remove.
Syntax
ec2-create-snapshot
volume_id
Options
| Name | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
|
The ID of the Amazon EBS volume to take a snapshot of. Type: String Default: None Example: vol-4d826724 |
Yes |
Output
The command returns a table that contains the following information:
-
SNAPSHOT identifier
-
ID of the snapshot
-
ID of the volume
-
Snapshot state (e.g., pending, completed, error)
-
Time stamp when snapshot initiated
Amazon EC2 displays errors on stderr.
Examples
Example Request
This example creates a snapshot of volume vol-4d826724.
PROMPT>ec2-create-snapshot vol-4d826724 --instance i-6058a509 --device /dev/sdhSNAPSHOT snap-78a54011 vol-4d826724 pending 2008-05-07T12:51:50+0000