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Recovering an external VM or server from a backup

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Updated at August 5, 2026
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Note

You cannot restore a VM backup to a server or a server backup to a VM. However, you can restore an external server backup to a Yandex BareMetal server.

To avoid errors when restoring from a backup, start by comparing the disks and partitions of the backup against those of the VM or server you are restoring to. For more information, see Viewing the parameters of backup disks and partitions.

To recover a VM or server located on your infrastructure or a third-party provider's infrastructure from a backup:

  1. Start the recovery process on the Yandex Cloud side.
  2. Make sure you have network access on the resource you recover.

Start the recovery process on the Yandex Cloud side

  1. In the management console, select the folder containing the backup.
  2. Navigate to Cloud Backup.
  3. In the left-hand panel, select  Backups.
  4. Depending on the resource type you want to recover from the backup, open the External virtual machines or External servers tab.
  5. In the line with the backup to recover the external VM or server from, click and select Restore VM.
  6. In the Restoring from a backup window that opens, in the Target resource field, select the external resource the backup will be recovered to.
  7. Click Restore.

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

The folder used by default is the one specified when creating the CLI profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also specify a different folder for any command using --folder-name or --folder-id. If you access a resource by its name, the search will be limited to the default folder. If you access a resource by its ID, the search will be global, i.e., through all folders based on access permissions.

  1. See the description of the CLI command to restore a resource from a backup:

    yc backup backups recover --help

  2. Get the ID of the backup:

    yc backup backups list

    Result:

    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------+----------------------+------+------------------+--------+---------------------+
|                  ID                  |              ARCHIVE ID              | COMPUTE INSTANCE ID  |             RESOURCE ID              |      POLICY ID       | TYPE |      DISKS       |  SIZE  |     CREATED AT      |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------+----------------------+------+------------------+--------+---------------------+
| ab55286e-795f-44dc-90af-b718******** | ef3e8144-fb65-6a59-5ec1-3162******** | jklp0o9i8012******** | 2465BE59-5687-4539-9589-DF7E******** | abc7n3wln123******** | FULL | Disk 1 (15.0 GB) | 1.5 GB | 2023-07-07 16:00:15 |
| cd50e147-7dfa-449f-816b-67f8******** | gh06b195-c095-1234-7809-0700******** | mnoa5s6d8345******** | 135C519D-B5A3-4781-8DFA-40B3******** | deflqbiwc456******** | FULL | Disk 1 (15.0 GB) | 1.6 GB | 2023-07-03 10:00:10 |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------+----------------------+------+------------------+--------+---------------------+

  3. Get the ID of the resource to recover:

    yc backup vm list

    Result:

    +----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------+---------+--------+-----------------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------+---------------------+---------------------+-------------+
|     INSTANCE ID      |             RESOURCE ID              | ONLINE | ENABLED | STATUS | STATUS PROGRESS | STATUS DETAILS |  LAST BACKUP TIME   |  NEXT BACKUP TIME   | ACTIVE |     CREATED AT      |     UPDATED AT      |    TYPE     |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------+---------+--------+-----------------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------+---------------------+---------------------+-------------+
| ly5mzirn6xhd******** | 4fc0d855-b76c-****-99a4-bf01******** | true   | true    | IDLE   |               0 |                |                     |                     | true   | 2026-04-29 05:45:34 | 2026-04-29 05:54:21 | BMS         |
| epd930eo5156******** | 6c58577d-409d-****-bc10-f464******** | true   | true    | IDLE   |               0 |                |                     |                     | true   | 2026-04-29 08:46:47 | 2026-04-29 08:54:00 | COMPUTE     |
| cdgd246kiae3******** | d1fdd342-0ea8-****-9906-fa6c******** | false  | true    | IDLE   |               0 |                | 2026-04-27 13:07:05 | 2026-04-27 13:07:05 | true   | 2026-04-24 14:23:06 | 2026-04-29 08:54:33 | EXTERNAL_VM |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------+---------+--------+-----------------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------+---------------------+---------------------+-------------+

  4. Recover a VM or server from a backup:

    yc backup backups recover \
  --source-backup-id <backup_ID> \
  --destination-instance-id <external_resource_ID>

    Where:

    • --source-backup-id: ID of the backup to recover the VM or server from.
    • --destination-instance-id: ID of the VM or server to recover the backup to.

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

Use the startRecovery REST API method for the Backup resource or the BackupService/StartRecovery gRPC API call.

As a result, the recovery of the external resource from the backup will be launched.

Note

If you are using LVM to manage the disk space of the protected resource, learn how to restore resources with LVM in Cloud Backup.

Make sure you have network access on the resource you recover

To recover external VMs and servers from Yandex Cloud Backup backups, these resources require internet access. During the process of recovering an external resource from a backup, it will be restarted and the Recovery Bootable Media tool will be launched on it. Make sure your VM or server has internet access in this mode.

If required, configure network access in the Recovery Bootable Media tool. Proceed as follows:

  • In the top menu, click Tools and, depending on the interface you are using, select Configure network or Wi-Fi settings.
  • In the window that opens, configure the settings and make sure you have an internet connection.

Useful links

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