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Creating a VM or Yandex BareMetal server backup

Written by
Updated at July 9, 2025

To create a backup of a VM or BareMetal server, connect it to Cloud Backup and link it to at least one backup policy. Any backup can only be created within policies.

Cloud Backup automatically creates backups based on the schedule detailed in the policy.

To create an out-of-schedule backup:

  1. In the management console, select the folder containing your backup policy.
  2. From the list of services, select Cloud Backup.
  3. Depending on the resource you want to create a backup for, select Virtual machines or BareMetal servers in the left-hand panel.
  4. In the row with the VM or BareMetal server, click and select Create backup.
  5. In the window that opens, select the backup policy for creating the backup and click Create.

Cloud Backup will start creating a backup of your VM or BareMetal server. You can follow the progress in the VM or BareMetal server row in the Server status field.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI installed yet, install and initialize it.

By default, the CLI uses the folder specified when creating the profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also set a different folder for any specific command using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

  1. View the description of the CLI command to create a backup:

    yc backup policy execute --help

  2. Get the ID of the backup policy the backup will be based on:

    yc backup policy list

    Result:

    +----------------------+----------------------+---------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+
|          ID          |      FOLDER ID       |  NAME   | ENABLED |     CREATED AT      |     UPDATED AT      |
+----------------------+----------------------+---------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+
| abc7n3wln123******** | ghi681qpe789******** | policy1 | true    | 2023-07-03 09:12:02 | 2023-07-03 09:12:43 |
| deflqbiwc456******** | ghi681qpe789******** | policy2 | true    | 2023-07-07 14:58:23 | 2023-07-07 14:58:23 |
+----------------------+----------------------+---------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+

  3. Get the ID of the VM you need to back up:

    yc compute instance list

    Result:

    +----------------------+---------+---------------+---------+--------------+-------------+
|          ID          |  NAME   |    ZONE ID    | STATUS  | EXTERNAL IP  | INTERNAL IP |
+----------------------+---------+---------------+---------+--------------+-------------+
| jklp0o9i8012******** | my-vm-1 | ru-central1-b | RUNNING | 51.250.**.** | 192.168.*.* |
| mnoa5s6d8345******** | my-vm-2 | ru-central1-b | RUNNING | 84.201.**.** | 192.168.*.* |
+----------------------+---------+---------------+---------+--------------+-------------+

    To get the BareMetal server IDs, select BareMetal from the list of services of the relevant folder in the management console. The IDs are specified in the server list in the ID field.

  4. Create a backup:

    yc backup policy execute \
  --id <policy_ID> \
  --instance-id <VM_or_BareMetal_server_ID>

    Where:

    • --id: ID of the backup policy the backup will be based on.
    • --instance-id: ID of the VM or BareMetal server you need to back up.

    Result:

    id: abcsdngawmqv********
description: execute policy
created_at: "2024-08-19T09:38:06.015732Z"
created_by: def9k8luj4qf********
modified_at: "2024-08-19T09:38:06.015732Z"
metadata:
  '@type': type.googleapis.com/yandex.cloud.backup.v1.ExecuteMetadata
  policy_id: hij86k3tu3pu********
  compute_instance_id: klmc87d7q49r********

For more information about this command, see the CLI reference.

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Deleting a policy
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Restoring a VM or BareMetal server from a backup