Console
Start free

gcloud compute disks snapshot

NAME
gcloud compute disks snapshot - create snapshots of Compute Engine persistent disks
SYNOPSIS
gcloud compute disks snapshot DISK_NAME [DISK_NAME …] [--async] [--chain-name=CHAIN_NAME] [--csek-key-file=FILE] [--description=DESCRIPTION] [--guest-flush] [--labels=[KEY=VALUE,…]] [--snapshot-names=SNAPSHOT_NAME,[…]] [--storage-location=LOCATION] [--region=REGION     | --zone=ZONE] [GCLOUD_WIDE_FLAG …]
DESCRIPTION
gcloud compute disks snapshot creates snapshots of persistent disks. Snapshots are useful for backing up data, copying a persistent disk, and even, creating a custom image. Snapshots can be created from persistent disks even while they are attached to running instances. Once created, snapshots may be managed (listed, deleted, etc.) via gcloud compute snapshots.

Refer to the Snapshot best practices guide. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/snapshot-best-practices

gcloud compute disks snapshot waits until the operation returns a status of READY or FAILED, or reaches the maximum timeout, and returns the last known details of the snapshot.

Note: To create snapshots, the following IAM permissions are necessary compute.disks.createSnapshot, compute.snapshots.create, compute.snapshots.get, and compute.zoneOperations.get.
EXAMPLES
To create a snapshot named snapshot-test of a persistent disk named test in zone us-central1-a, run: 
gcloud compute disks snapshot test --zone=us-central1-a --snapshot-names=snapshot-test --description="This is an example snapshot"
POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS
DISK_NAME [DISK_NAME …]
Names of the disks to operate on.
FLAGS
--async
Return immediately, without waiting for the operation in progress to complete.
--chain-name=CHAIN_NAME
Create the new snapshot in the snapshot chain labeled with the specified name. The chain name must be 1-63 characters long and comply with RFC1035. Use this flag only if you are an advanced service owner who needs to create separate snapshot chains, for example, for chargeback tracking. When you describe your snapshot resource, this field is visible only if it has a non-empty value.
--csek-key-file=FILE
(DEPRECATED) Path to a Customer-Supplied Encryption Key (CSEK) key file that maps Compute Engine resources to user managed keys to be used when creating, mounting, or taking snapshots of disks. 
If you pass `-` as value of the flag, the CSEK is read from stdin.
See https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/customer-supplied-encryption for more details.
 The --csek-key-file flag is deprecated.
--description=DESCRIPTION
Text to describe the snapshots being created.
--guest-flush
Create an application-consistent snapshot by informing the OS to prepare for the snapshot process.
--labels=[KEY=VALUE,…]
List of label KEY=VALUE pairs to add. Keys must start with a lowercase character and contain only hyphens (-), underscores (_), lowercase characters, and numbers. Values must contain only hyphens (-), underscores (_), lowercase characters, and numbers.
--snapshot-names=SNAPSHOT_NAME,[…]
Names to assign to the created snapshots. Without this option, the name of each snapshot will be a random 12-character alphanumeric string that starts with a letter. The values of this option run parallel to the disks specified. For example, 
gcloud compute disks snapshot my-disk-1 my-disk-2 my-disk-3 --snapshot-names snapshot-1,snapshot-2,snapshot-3
 will result in my-disk-1 being snapshotted as snapshot-1, my-disk-2 as snapshot-2, and so on. The name must match the (?:[a-z](?:[-a-z0-9]{0,61}[a-z0-9])?) regular expression, which means it must start with an alphabetic character followed by one or more alphanumeric characters or dashes. The name must not exceed 63 characters and must not contain special symbols. All characters must be lowercase.
--storage-location=LOCATION
Google Cloud Storage location, either regional or multi-regional, where snapshot content is to be stored. If absent, a nearby regional or multi-regional location is chosen automatically.
At most one of these can be specified:
--region=REGION
Region of the disks to operate on. If not specified, you might be prompted to select a region (interactive mode only).

To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, you can set the compute/region property: 

gcloud config set compute/region REGION

A list of regions can be fetched by running: 

gcloud compute regions list

To unset the property, run: 

gcloud config unset compute/region
 Alternatively, the region can be stored in the environment variable CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_REGION.
--zone=ZONE
Zone of the disks to operate on. If not specified and the compute/zone property isn't set, you might be prompted to select a zone (interactive mode only).

To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, you can set the compute/zone property: 

gcloud config set compute/zone ZONE

A list of zones can be fetched by running: 

gcloud compute zones list

To unset the property, run: 

gcloud config unset compute/zone
 Alternatively, the zone can be stored in the environment variable CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_ZONE.
GCLOUD WIDE FLAGS
These flags are available to all commands: --access-token-file, --account, --billing-project, --configuration, --flags-file, --flatten, --format, --help, --impersonate-service-account, --log-http, --project, --quiet, --trace-token, --user-output-enabled, --verbosity.

Run $ gcloud help for details.

NOTES
These variants are also available: 
gcloud alpha compute disks snapshot
 
gcloud beta compute disks snapshot
 
gcloud preview compute disks snapshot