# Snapshots Snapshots, often employed as a short-term solution in testing and development environments, are commonly used for patching, updates, or for quick tests with an option to rollback in case of a failure. Their utility extends to certain scenarios in production environments too, especially when undertaking high-risk operations like OS updates or potential system-altering configuration changes. **Our snapshot implementation serves to provide rollback milestones.** When an instance is booted to a specific snapshot, it permanently destroys all data written after the snapshot was taken. In a typical scenario, accessing snapshot data requires rebooting to that snapshot, effectively discarding any data accumulated post the snapshot's creation. It is also paramount to understand that **snapshots are not a replacement for a comprehensive backup strategy**. Snapshots reside alongside your live data on the same system and unlike a full backup strategy, they do not generally provide a separate, recoverable data copy. ## Creating a Snapshot ### Create a snapshot using the portal This guide outlines the steps to create a snapshot in the MNX.io portal. Please note that we recommend testing the rollback functionality on your system to ensure your application recovers properly before the need arises to use it. * **Access Instance Management** Once logged in, find and click on the "Compute" or "Instances" section in the left-hand navigation menu to access your instances. * **Select the Instance** From the list of instances, select the instance for which you want to create a snapshot.

* **Create a Snapshot** After selecting the instance, look for the "Snapshots" tab and click on it. Within this tab, find and click on the "Create Snapshot" button.

* **Name Your Snapshot** A dialog box will appear asking you to name your snapshot. Choose a meaningful name that will help you identify the snapshot later. It's a good practice to include the date and the state of the instance in the snapshot name. By default the name will be a datetime stamp.

* **Initiate Snapshot Creation** After naming your snapshot, click on the "Create" button. The snapshot creation process will start and it may take some time depending on the size of your instance.

* **Monitor Snapshot Creation** You can monitor the progress of the snapshot creation from the "Snapshots" tab. Once the snapshot has been created, it will appear in the list of available snapshots. ### **Creating a Snapshot using the Triton-CLI Command Line Utility** This guide will take you through the steps of creating a snapshot in the portal using the Triton-CLI command line utility. This process is a handy alternative if you prefer using the command line over the graphical user interface. To get started, please refer to the [Triton CLI tools installation documentation](https://docs.mnx.io/api/triton-cli-tool#installation). 1. **List Your Instances** To list all of your instances, you can use the following command: ``` triton instance list ``` 2. **Create a Snapshot** To create a snapshot of a specific instance, you'll need to use the 'instance snapshot create' command followed by the instance ID. Like so: ``` triton instance snapshot create ``` Replace `` with the ID of the instance you want to create a snapshot for. 3. **Name Your Snapshot** To name your snapshot, append the command above with the desired name: ``` triton instance snapshot create -n ``` Replace `` with your desired snapshot name. Remember, it's a good practice to include the date and state of the instance in the snapshot name. 4. **Monitor Snapshot Creation** To check the status of your snapshot creation, use the 'instance snapshot get' command: ``` triton instance snapshot get ``` This will display the status of the specified snapshot.