You can apply automatic snapshot policies to disks. After an automatic snapshot policy is applied to a disk, snapshots are automatically created for the disk based on the policy.

Prerequisites

At least one automatic snapshot policy is created.

Method 1: Apply or disable an automatic snapshot policy on the Snapshots page

On the Snapshots page of the ECS console, you can apply or disable an automatic snapshot policy on a system or data disk.

  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Storage & Snapshots > Snapshots.
  3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  4. On the Snapshots page, click the Automatic Snapshot Policies tab.
  5. On the Automatic Snapshot Policies tab, find the target automatic snapshot policy and click Apply or Disable Policy in the Actions column.
  6. In the Apply or Disable Automatic Snapshot Policy dialog box that appears, click the Disks Without Policy Applied tab.
    • If you want to apply the automatic snapshot policy, click the Disks Without Policy Applied tab, find the disk to which you want to apply the policy, and then click Apply Policy in the Actions column. You can also select multiple disks and click Apply Policy in the lower part of the dialog box.Apply the automatic snapshot policy
    • If you want to disable the automatic snapshot policy, click the Disks with Policy Applied tab, find the disk on which you want to disable the policy, and then click Disable Policy in the Actions column. You can also select multiple disks and click Disable Policy in the lower part of the dialog box.Disable the automatic snapshot policy
  7. In the upper-right corner of the Apply or Disable Automatic Snapshot Policy dialog box, click the Cancel icon to close the dialog box.

Method 2: Apply an automatic snapshot policy when you create an ECS instance

When you create an ECS instance, you can apply an automatic snapshot policy to a system or data disk.

  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Instances.
  3. In the upper-right corner of the Instances page, click Create Instance. For more information about how to create an ECS instance, see Create an instance by using the provided wizard.
    In the Storage section of the Basic Configurations page, select Disk Backup for the system disk or data disks and then select an automatic snapshot policy.Create an ECS instance

Method 3: Apply an automatic snapshot policy when you create a disk

You can apply an automatic snapshot policy to a disk when you create the disk.

  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Storage & Snapshots > Disks.
  3. In the upper-right corner of the Disks page, click Create Disk. For more information about how to create a disk, see Create a pay-as-you-go disk or Create a subscription disk.
    Select Disk Backup and then select an automatic snapshot policy.Apply an automatic snapshot policy

Method 4: Apply or disable an automatic snapshot policy on the Disks page

On the Disks page of the ECS console, you can apply or disable an automatic snapshot policy on a system or data disk.

  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Storage & Snapshots > Disks.
  3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  4. Find the target disk and click Apply or Disable Automatic Snapshot Policy in the Actions column.
  5. In the Apply or Disable Automatic Snapshot Policy dialog box that appears, turn on or off Automatic Snapshot Policy.
    Apply or disable an automatic snapshot policy
  6. Click OK.

Result

After you apply or disable an automatic snapshot policy on a disk, you can view the changed number of disks to which the policy is applied in the Applied Disks column corresponding to the policy on the Automatic Snapshot Policies tab.

Applied disks
When an automatic snapshot policy is triggered, an automatic snapshot whose prefix is auto2.0 is created for the disk. All automatic snapshots are named in the auto2.0_yyyyMMdd_SnapshotPolicyId format. For example, auto2.0_20170731_sp-m5e2w2jutw8bv31***** indicates that the automatic snapshot was created on July 31, 2017, where:
  • auto2.0: the automatic snapshot.
  • yyyyMMdd: the date when the snapshot is created. yyyy stands for year, MM for month, and dd for date.
  • SnapshotPolicyId: the ID of the automatic snapshot policy used.