Creating recovery copies of Skytap VMs and environments
Skytap has several features that help you retain copies of your VMs or environments in multiple regions, or in an off-site location.
These backup copies can be used to restore a VM or environment from a known point after:
- an unwanted change is made.
- an accidental deletion by a user or script.
- a disaster.
Contents
How to duplicate individual VMs
To create a separate copy of an individual VM, we recommend that you:
Step
Instructions
Scenario
Step 1: Routinely save the VM as a template.
How frequently you save the VM should depend on how frequently you make changes to it.
When you save an environment as a template, you can choose to save all of the environment VMs in the template, or just some of them. You can later use the template to quickly recreate one or more VMs from a known state.
- To save a single VM in a template, follow the instructions at Save a VM as a template.
- For more information about templates, see Saving an environment as a template.
From this template, you can:
- Add a VM back to an environment if the VM is accidentally deleted.
- Remove a VM that has an unwanted change made to it, and replace it with a VM from a known good state.
Step 2: Copy the template with the VM to another region. (If you have multiple Skytap regions enabled in your account.)
With a few clicks, you can make a copy of a template in another Skytap geographical region.
For more information, see Copying a template to another region.
From this template, you can:
- Restore a VM after a disaster involving the original region.
Step 3: (Optional) To create an off-site copy of the VM, export the VM out of Skytap.
Individual VMs can be exported from a template and downloaded to your local machine or data center. For instructions, see Exporting VMs out of Skytap.
From this exported VM, you can:
- Later re-import the VM to Skytap in a known state. For more information, see Overview: Importing VMs and vApps into Skytap.
How to duplicate entire environments
To create a separate copy of an entire environment, we recommend that you:
Step
Instructions
Scenario
Step 1: Routinely save the environment as a template.
How frequently you save the environment should depend on how frequently you make changes to it.
The template can contain all, or some, of the environment VMs and networks, as well as the environment settings and the state of an environment.
For instructions, see Saving an environment as a template.
Create a schedule to automatically save the environment as a template on a recurring basis. For more information, see Automating actions with schedules.
From this template, you can:
- Create a new environment from a known state to replace a deleted environment.
- Create a new environment from a known state to replace an environment with unwanted changes.
Step 2: Copy the template to another region. (If you have multiple Skytap regions enabled in your account.)
With a few clicks, you can make a copy of a template in another Skytap geographical region.
For more information, see Copying a template to another region.
From this template, you can:
- Restore an environment after a disaster involving the original region.