Create a snapshot of a virtual hard disk

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets

A snapshot is a full, read-only copy of a virtual hard disk (VHD). You can use a snapshot as a point-in-time backup, or to help troubleshoot virtual machine (VM) issues. You can take a snapshot of both operating system (OS) or data disk VHDs.

Create a snapshot of a VHD

If you want to use a snapshot to create a new VM, ensure that you first cleanly shut down the VM. This action clears any processes that are in progress.

To create a snapshot using the Azure portal, complete these steps.

  1. In the Azure portal, select Create a resource.
  2. Search for and select Snapshot.
  3. In the Snapshot window, select Create. The Create snapshot window appears.
  4. For Resource group, select an existing resource group or enter the name of a new one.
  5. Enter a Name, then select a Region and Snapshot type for the new snapshot. If you would like to store your snapshot in zone-resilient storage, you need to select a region that supports availability zones. For a list of supporting regions, see Azure regions with availability zones.
  6. For Source subscription, select the subscription that contains the managed disk to be backed up.
  7. For Source disk, select the managed disk to snapshot.
  8. For Storage type, select Standard HDD, unless you require zone-redundant storage or high-performance storage for your snapshot.
  9. If needed, configure settings on the Encryption, Networking, and Tags tabs. Otherwise, default settings are used for your snapshot.
  10. Select Review + create.

Next steps

To recover using a snapshot, you must create a new disk from the snapshot, then either deploy a new VM, and use the managed disk as the OS disk, or attach the disk as a data disk to an existing VM.

For more information, see the example in Create a VM from a VHD by using the Azure portal.