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 Amazon Elastic BLock Store.

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 to unmount the volume.

umount -d device_name

For example:

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.

The short version of this command is ec2addsnap.

Syntax

ec2-create-snapshot volume_id [-d description]

Options

Name Description Required

Name	Description	Required
`volume_id`	The ID of the Amazon EBS volume of which to take a snapshot. Type: String Default: None Example: vol-4d826724	Yes
`-d, --description` `description`	Description of the Amazon EBS snapshot. Type: String Default: None Constraints: Up to 255 characters Example: -d "Daily backup"	No

volume_id

The ID of the Amazon EBS volume of which to take a snapshot.

Type: String

Default: None

Example: vol-4d826724

Yes

-d, --description description

Description of the Amazon EBS snapshot.

Type: String

Default: None

Constraints: Up to 255 characters

Example: -d "Daily backup"

No

Common Options

Option	Description
`--region` `REGION`	Overrides the Region specified in the `EC2_URL` environment variable and the URL specified by the `-U` option. Default: The `EC2_URL` environment variable, or `us-east-1` if the environment variable is not set. Example: `--region eu-west-1`
`-U, --url` `URL`	`URL` is the uniform resource locator of the Amazon EC2 web service entry point. Default: The `EC2_URL` environment variable, or https://ec2.amazonaws.com if the environment variable is not set. Example: `-U https://ec2.amazonaws.com`
`-K, --private-key` `EC2-PRIVATE-KEY`	The private key to use when constructing requests to Amazon EC2. Default: The value of the `EC2_PRIVATE_KEY` environment variable. Example: `-K pk-HKZYKTAIG2ECMXYIBH3HXV4ZBEXAMPLE.pem`
`-C, --cert` `EC2-CERT`	The X.509 certificate to use when constructing requests to Amazon EC2. Default: The value of the `EC2_CERT` environment variable. Example: `-C cert-HKZYKTAIG2ECMXYIBH3HXV4ZBEXAMPLE.pem`
`--connection-timeout` `TIMEOUT`	Specifies a connection timeout (in seconds). Example: --connection-timeout 30
`--request-timeout` `TIMEOUT`	Specifies a request timeout (in seconds). Example: --request-timeout 45
`-v, --verbose`	Displays verbose output by showing the SOAP request and response on the command line. This is particularly useful if you are building tools to talk directly to our SOAP API.
`-H, --headers`	Displays column headers in the output.
`--show-empty-fields`	Shows empty columns as `(nil)`.
`--hide-tags`	Do not display tags for tagged resources.
`--debug`	Prints internal debugging information. This is useful to assist us when troubleshooting problems.
`-?, --help, -h`	Displays Help.
`-`	If `-` is specified as an argument to one of the parameters, a list of arguments is read from standard input. This is useful for piping the output of one command into the input of another. Example: `ec2-describe-instances \| grep stopped \| cut -f 2 \| ec2-start-instances -`

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 command line tools display 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   999988887777    1     Daily Backup