Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Manually Backing Up a Volume

Create a manual backup for a volume in the Block Volume service.

Volume backups are point-in-time snapshots of volume data. For more information, see Block Volume Backups. You can create a manual backup for a volume by using the steps in this topic. To create backups based on a defined schedule and retention policy, see Policy-Based Backups (Backup Policies).

Manual backups don't expire, they're maintained until you delete them.

For information to help you decide whether to create a backup or a clone of a boot volume, see Differences Between Block Volume Backups and Clones. For more information about backups, see Block Volume Backups and Restoring a Backup to a New Volume.

Note

The size of a volume backup size might be larger than the current volume usage. See Volume Backup Size.

Required IAM Policy

To use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, an administrator must be a member of a group granted security access in a policy  by a tenancy administrator. This access is required whether you're using the Console or the REST API with an SDK, CLI, or other tool. If you get a message that you don't have permission or are unauthorized, verify with the tenancy administrator what type of access you have and which compartment  your access works in.

Tip

When users create a backup from a volume or restore a volume from a backup, the volume and backup don't have to be in the same compartment . However, users must have access to both compartments.
If you're new to policies, see Managing Identity Domains and Common Policies. For reference material about writing policies for instances, cloud networks, or other Core Services API resources, see Details for Core Services.
    1. On the Block Volumes list page, select the volume that you want. If you need help finding the list page or the volumes, see Listing Volumes.
    2. On the details page, select Backups, and then select Create Block Volume Backup.
    3. On the Create block volume backup panel, enter the following information.
      • Name: Enter a name for the backup. Avoid entering confidential information.
      • Backup type: Select the backup type, either incremental or full.
      • Show tagging options: (Optional) Add tags to the backup. If you have permissions to create a resource, then you also have permissions to apply free-form tags to that resource. To apply a defined tag, you must have permissions to use the tag namespace. For more information about tagging, see Resource Tags. If you're not sure whether to apply tags, skip this option or ask an administrator. You can apply tags later.
    4. Select Create Block Volume Backup.
    The backup is complete when the State column value changes to Available in the Block Volume Backups list page.

  • Use the oci bv backup create command and specify the --volume-id parameter to create a block volume backup:

    oci bv backup create --volume-id <volume_OCID> --display-name <Name> --type <FULL|INCREMENTAL>

    For example:

    oci bv backup create --volume-id  ocid1.volume.oc1..<unique_ID> --display-name "backup display name" --type FULL

    For a complete list of parameters and values for CLI commands, see the CLI Command Reference.

  • Run the CreateVolumeBackup operation and specify the volumeId attribute for the CreateVolumeBackupDetails resource to create a block volume backup.

    For information about using the API and signing requests, see REST API documentation and Security Credentials. For information about SDKs, see SDKs and the CLI.