Snapshots
Point-in-time rollback: create, restore and delete, shown as a tree with the current state.
When to use them
Take a snapshot before a risky change, check the change, then delete the snapshot once you trust the result. If the change goes wrong, restore rolls the VM back.
Snapshots are rollback points, not backups. They live on the same storage as the VM. For disaster recovery use Backups.
Create, restore, delete
| Operation | Permission | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Create | snapshot.create | Captures the VM's state while it keeps running |
| Restore | snapshot.restore | Rolls the VM back; everything written since is lost |
| Delete | snapshot.delete | Merges the snapshot into its parent and frees space; other snapshots stay |
- Take a snapshot from the VM's Snapshots tab, the action menu, or for many VMs at once with a multi-selection on the VMs page.
- snapshot.view shows snapshots of owned VMs; snapshot.view.all shows all of them. Every operation is recorded in Activity.
The snapshot tree
Snapshots form a tree: each one records the snapshot it was taken from, and restoring an older snapshot and carrying on starts a new branch. The VM's Snapshots tab draws this as a branch graph, oldest at the top, with a “Now” node for the live state hanging off the current snapshot.
LVM snapshots
- VMs whose disk lives on plain (thick) LVM storage get LVM snapshots instead of Proxmox snapshots; the portal picks the right type automatically. The project page labels each snapshot PVE or LVM.
- There is one LVM snapshot per VM. Restoring it merges it into the disk, so the snapshot is used up.
- If the VM is running, the merge is queued and applies on the next full power cycle (stop, then start in Proxmox; an in-guest reboot is not enough). Until then the snapshot shows “awaiting reboot”.
The project Snapshots page
- Groups every snapshot by age (Today, This week, This month, Older) with counts and size per group.
- Filter by VM, by creator and by Current or Historic. The header shows the total count and size.
- Give snapshots names that say why they exist, such as pre-update, so the right one is easy to pick later.
Features on this page
- Snapshots
- Snapshot tree
- LVM snapshots
- Project snapshot overview
More in Data protectionAll topics
BackupsBackup jobs, the day browser, Backup now, restore and retention, with use and create as separate rights.BackupsBackup jobs, the day browser, Backup now, restore and retention, with use and create as separate rights.TemplatesAllow golden images per project, cap their resources and set per-template provisioning rules.