---
title: "Backups"
description: "Learn how to create and manage backups for your VMs on Edge Network, including snapshots, restoring to a previous state, limits and pricing."
url: "https://edge.network/docs/compute/backups"
section: "Compute"
---

# Backups

Protect your data with VM snapshots and backups.

## Overview

Edge Network provides snapshot-based backups for your VMs. A snapshot captures the entire state of your VM's disk at a specific point in time, allowing you to restore to that exact state if needed.

- **Manual snapshots:** create snapshots on demand before making changes or deployments.
- **Restore any time:** roll back to any saved snapshot with a single click.

## Creating a snapshot

Create a snapshot to save the current state of your VM's disk.

1. Navigate to your VM's **Backups** tab.
2. Click **Create Snapshot**.
3. Enter a descriptive name (e.g. "Before nginx update" or "2024-01-15").
4. Click **Create**.

![Create Snapshot dialog](/media/docs/control-vm-backups.svg)

> [!TIP]
> For best results, create snapshots when your VM is idle or has minimal activity. This ensures a consistent snapshot.

> [!WARNING]
> Snapshots capture the disk state, but not in-memory data. For databases, consider using database-native backup tools alongside snapshots.

## Managing snapshots

View and manage all snapshots for a VM from the **Backups** tab.

| Information | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name you gave the snapshot |
| Created | Date and time the snapshot was taken |
| Size | Size of the snapshot |
| Status | Ready, Creating or Error |

## Restoring from a snapshot

Roll back your VM to a previous state by restoring from a snapshot.

1. Go to your VM's **Backups** tab.
2. Find the snapshot you want to restore.
3. Click **Restore**.
4. Confirm the restoration.

> [!CAUTION]
> **This will overwrite current data.** Restoring a snapshot replaces all current data on your VM's disk with the snapshot's data. Any changes made after the snapshot was taken will be lost.

### What happens during a restore

- Your VM is stopped if it's running.
- The disk is replaced with the snapshot contents.
- Your VM is restarted automatically.
- IP addresses and other settings remain unchanged.

## Deleting snapshots

Delete old snapshots you no longer need to free up storage.

1. Go to your VM's **Backups** tab.
2. Find the snapshot you want to delete.
3. Click the trash icon.
4. Confirm the deletion.

> [!WARNING]
> Deleted snapshots cannot be recovered. Make sure you no longer need the snapshot before deleting it.

## Limits and pricing

| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Snapshots per VM | 3 |
| Price | $0.05 per GB per month |
| Default retention | 7 days |

Need more snapshots or longer retention? Contact support to discuss enterprise backup options.

## Best practices

- **Snapshot before major changes:** always create a snapshot before updates, deployments or configuration changes.
- **Use descriptive names:** name snapshots with dates or descriptions so you know what state they represent.
- **Combine with application-level backups:** for databases, use `pg_dump`, `mysqldump` etc. in addition to VM snapshots.
- **Test your restores:** periodically test restoring a snapshot to make sure your backups work when needed.