Save and restore with snapshots

A snapshot restores the same computer in place. Use a private image to create a separate computer, and copy important data outside the server for a backup.

Choose disk or memory

Use a disk snapshot when the application can recover from a stopped or application-consistent disk state. A memory snapshot also captures the running session and consumes saved-memory storage. Flush databases or use their backup procedure before capture; the platform cannot infer application consistency from VM state alone.

Snapshot creation returns the computer and operation on acceptance. Poll the operation. While a running computer has busy=snapshot, reads and existing data traffic remain available, but conflicting mutations refuse. A no-op start/resume remains a no-op only when its original success condition already holds. Delete and safety enforcement have their own priority rules.

Restore deliberately

Stop the computer as required, select its own snapshot and request restore. The restore operation succeeds at verified checkpoint application and the resulting stopped or paused state, not guest readiness. Memory restore does not silently start executing the saved workload. Resume/start explicitly after checking balance, restrictions and capacity.

Restore revokes stale data authority; mint new tokens and sessions. Check SSH fingerprints through the authenticated API before reconnecting. If restoring from different resource configuration is unsupported, the operation must refuse rather than infer desired CPU/RAM as observed success.

Retain or remove

Snapshots follow their source computer's retention and deletion guards. Snapshot creation rate limits are six/hour for Tier 1 and twenty/hour for Tier 2. Account storage and saved-memory bytes are billable under Pricing. Deleting a snapshot is destructive and does not export it first. The snapshot API includes the complete restore and retention contract.

Dory is in development; these pages describe the planned service and may change. Questions: support@computeengines.com.