Virtual Machines
Manage Backups
Enable, trigger, and manage backups for instances
Backups provide scheduled and on-demand protection for instance data, with account-level and instance-level operational views.
Backup scope
Backups are managed from:
- Account-level Backup tab: cross-instance visibility and operations
- Instance-level Backups tab: instance-scoped backup management
Backup lifecycle operations
Supported operations:
- Enable automatic backups
- Trigger manual backup
- Disable automatic backups
- Delete backup records
Backup policy inputs
When enabling backups, policy configuration defines:
- Frequency
- Retention behavior
When enabled, the UI displays backup status and available actions for that VM.
When to use backups
- Production instances: Always enable automatic backups for instances running production workloads
- Data protection: For instances storing critical data or applications with important state
- Compliance: Meet data retention and recovery requirements
- Peace of mind: Protection against accidental data loss or corruption
Best practices
- Enable early: Configure backups immediately after launching production instances
- Monitor retention: Review your retention policy periodically to balance protection and costs
- Use manual backups: Trigger manual backups before major updates or risky operations