Create backups of cloud server network disks

Last update: May 28 2025

Create backups of cloud server network disks

You can create backups manually or set up automatic scheduled backups.

Learn more about full and incremental backups in the Network Disk Backups tutorial.

Backups do not have automatic health and consistency checks. We recommend that you periodically restore from backups so that you can verify that the restore is working correctly.

Create a manual backup⁠

1. In the Control panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.
2. Go to the Disks section.
3. From the menu of the disk, select Create Backup.
4. Click Create backup.

Configure scheduled backups⁠

You can set disk backup settings in the backup plan:

• to which disks to apply the plan — for which disks backups will be created according to this plan;
• type of backups created — full or incremental;
• schedule — when disk backups will be created;
• how many recent full backups to store — more about storing backups.

You can apply a single backup plan to one disk or to multiple disks at once — you don't have to configure a backup schedule for each disk separately. You can apply any number of plans to a single disk.

You can add plans to the disk that apply to it.

If you need to change the backup settings, you can edit the plan.

Create a plan⁠

1. In the dashboard, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.

2. Go to the Backups section.

3. Open the Plans tab.

4. Click Create a Plan.

5. Enter the name of the plan.

6. Select the pool where the disk is located.

7. Mark the disks to which the plan will apply.

8. Select the backup type: full or incremental.

9. If you selected full backup, specify how to customize the schedule.

   By day of the week

   To configure backups by day of the week, select the desired days and enter the time in HH:MM format in your time zone on which backups will be created.

   Via a cron statement

   To configure backups via a cron statement, enter the cron statement in UTC +0.

   The Cron expression consists of five values in order — they specify the time points at which backups will be created:

   • minutes from 0 to 59;
   • hours — 0 to 24;
   • days of the month — from 1 to 31;
   • month one through 12;
   • days of the week, 1 through 7.

   Any of the values can be replaced by the * symbol — it stands for every possible value.

   For example, the entry 0 0,12 * * * 1,5 will create backups on Monday and Friday at 00:00 and 12:00.

   You can use online editors — such as crontab guru — to create cron statements.

10. If you selected incremental backup, enter the time in HH:MM format in your time zone at which daily backups will be created.

    A full backup is created first, then it is created exactly one week later and then once a week thereafter. On other days incremental backups are created.

11. Choose whether to keep all or the most recent backups.

12. If you choose to store recent backups, specify how many recent full backups to store. Minimum number of full backups to store:

    • for full backups, one;
    • for incremental backups — two. Incremental backups are stored in chains of seven backups — one full backup and six subsequent incremental backups. For example, if the plan settings specify that three full backups are stored, the last three backup chains will be stored.

    There is no limit to the number of backups that can be created within a single plan.

13. Click Create a Plan.

Edit the plan⁠

You cannot change the type of backups in the plan.

1. In the dashboard, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.
2. Go to the Backups section.
3. Open the Plans tab.
4. From the menu of the plan, select Change Settings.
5. Optional: Change the disks to which the plan applies. If you disconnect the plan from a disk, the backups created for that disk will be preserved.
6. Optional: change the schedule for creating backups.
7. Optional: change the backup storage settings.
8. Optional: If you are storing recent backups, change the number of backups stored. If you reduce this number, the previous backups that do not fall under the new limit will be deleted after new backups are automatically created. For example, instead of storing seven backups, you set the number of backups to four — after creating one new backup, the first four backups will be deleted (leaving one new backup and three previous backups).
9. Click Save.

Add plans to the disk⁠

You can add any number of plans to the disk for which backups will be created, and you can disconnect a plan from the disk.

1. In the dashboard, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.
2. Go to the Disks section.
3. From the disk's menu, select Configure Backup Plan.
4. Select plans.
5. Click Add Plan.