Cloning disks

You can create clones of disks by restoring them and attaching them to the same or a different instance, or by restoring them to the same or a different source, region, or zone and leaving them unattached. In this case, the original disks will not be overwritten.

Prerequisite

Only if you do not plan to attach the restored disks to an instance. The default VPC must exist in the region of the source to which you want to restore the disks.

Limitations

  • You can attach the restored disks only to an instance that is running the same operating system as the original instance and that belongs to the same protection set as the original instance.

  • You cannot restore disks to a different source or region from a snapshot.

  • Only if you plan to restore disks to a different source and leave them unattached. The default network must be set for the source to which you plan to restore the disks, or the source to which you plan to restore the disks must have the same network as the instance whose disks you plan to restore.

Considerations

  • Only if you are restoring Google Cloud instance disks and you plan to replicate disks.

    • The boot disk cannot be replicated.

    • Standard persistent disks smaller than 200 GiB cannot be replicated.

    • Regional disks can be replicated only across two zones in the same region. One of these zones must be the same as the zone of the destination instance.

    • If the region or zone of the destination instance changes, all regional disks are automatically converted to zonal disks. In this case, the procedure of replicating the disks must be performed again.

Procedure

  1. In the Instances panel, click the instance whose disks you want to restore to open the Detail view.

    Note  The Detail view appears only if you click an instance. Selecting the check box before the name of the instance will not open the Detail view.

  2. In the Detail view that appears at the bottom of the screen, select the preferred restore point.
  3. Click Restore Instance Restore Instance.
  1. Select Clone Options, and then click Next.
  2. Select Clone Disks, and then click Next.
  3. From the list of disks that are available for the restore, select the ones that you want to restore, and then click Next.

  4. From the Restore From drop-down menu, select which tier you want to use for the restore. Your restore point can contain one or more tiers among which you can select:

    • Automatic: This option ensures the fastest and most cost-effective restore.

    • Backup (Snapshot)

    • Backup (Target)

    • Copy

    • Archive—(daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)

  5. From the Destination Source drop-down menu, select the source to which you want to restore the disks. You can choose from the sources that belong to the currently selected protection set and that your user account can access.

  6. Depending on whether you plan to attach the restored disks to an instance, do one of the following:

    • If you plan to attach the disks to an instance: Select the region and the zone that contain the instance to which you want to attach the restored disks.

    • If you do not plan to attach the disks to an instance: Select the region and the zone of the source to which you want to restore the disks.

  7. From the Destination Instance drop-down menu, select the instance to which you want to attach the restored disks. If you do not want to attach the disks to an instance, select None (Leave unattached).

  8. Optional. In the Post-restore Script field, enter the path to the script or a command that R‑Cloud should run after the restore on the instance to which the restored disks are attached.

    Note  You can enter any command that the command-line interface of your instance supports.

  9. Edit the disks as required. For each selected disk, do the following:

    1. Click Edit Edit Disk.

    2. Only if you do not want R‑Cloud to automatically generate a name for the restored disk device or disk. Do the following:

      1. Only if you are restoring AWS or Google Cloud instance disks. In the New Device name field, enter a name for the restored disk device.

      2. In the New Disk name field, enter a name for the restored disk.

    3. Only if you are restoring AWS or Google Cloud instance disks. If you want to change the disk type, from the Disk Type drop-down menu, select one of the available disk types for the restored disk. By default, the original disk type is selected. The following disk types are available:

      • For Google Cloud: Standard persistent disk, Balanced persistent disks, and SSD persistent disk.

      • For AWS: General Purpose SSD, Previous Generation Volume, and Provisioned IOPS SSD.

      If you selected Provisioned IOPS SSD or General Purpose SSD, enter the IOPS number.

    4. Only if you are restoring Google Cloud instance disks. If you want to replicate data between two zones in the region of the instance, make sure the Replicate this disk within region check box is selected, and then, from the Target Zone drop-down menu, select to which zone you want to replicate data. If the selected disk was regional at backup time, the two zones across which the disk is replicated are shown, otherwise, a list of all zones in the region of the instance is shown.

    5. Only if you want to add labels to the restored disk.

      1. Click Advanced.

      2. Click Manage Manage.

      3. Enter a key and a value, and then click Add for each label that you want to add.

        Note  If the selected disk already has one or more labels added, they are listed under Advanced. If you want to delete any of the added labels, click Delete Delete next to it.

    6. Click Save.
  10. Click Restore.