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 [-d description]
Options
| Name | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
|
The ID of the Amazon EBS volume of which to take a snapshot. Type: String Default: None Example: vol-4d826724 |
Yes |
|
Description of the Amazon EBS snapshot. Type: String Default: None Constraints: Up to 255 characters Example: Daily backup |
No |
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
-
ID of the owner
-
Size of the volume
-
Description
Amazon EC2 displays errors on stderr.
Examples
Example Request
This example creates a snapshot of volume vol-4d826724.
PROMPT>ec2-create-snapshot vol-4d826724 --description "Daily Backup"SNAPSHOT snap-c070c5a9 vol-9539dcfc pending 2009-09-16T14:31:29+0000 218213537122 1 Daily Backup