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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.
- In the Azure portal, select Create a resource.
- Search for and select Snapshot.
- In the Snapshot window, select Create. The Create snapshot window appears.
- For Resource group, select an existing resource group or enter the name of a new one.
- 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.
- For Source subscription, select the subscription that contains the managed disk to be backed up.
- For Source disk, select the managed disk to snapshot.
- For Storage type, select Standard HDD, unless you require zone-redundant storage or high-performance storage for your snapshot.
- If needed, configure settings on the Encryption, Networking, and Tags tabs. Otherwise, default settings are used for your snapshot.
- 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.