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Elastic Compute Service:CreateAutoSnapshotPolicy

Last Updated:Jul 14, 2026

Creates an automatic snapshot policy in a specified region. You can specify the repeat cycle, retention period, and cross-region backup settings for automatic snapshots to back up data on system disks or data disks.

Operation description

Before you call this operation, read Create an automatic snapshot policy.

Take note of the following items:

  • You can create a maximum of 100 automatic snapshot policies in a region for an Alibaba Cloud account. When the number of automatic snapshots for a disk reaches the quota limit, the system deletes the earliest automatic snapshot created by the automatic snapshot policy when a new snapshot task is initiated.

  • The system does not execute automatic snapshot policies when an ECS instance has a pending stop or restart task.

  • If cross-region snapshot replication is enabled and no encryption parameters are configured, encrypted snapshots are replicated to the destination region by using the service key of the destination region by default. For more information about cross-region snapshot replication, see Copy a snapshot.

After you create an automatic snapshot policy, call ApplyAutoSnapshotPolicy to apply the policy to disks. To modify an automatic snapshot policy, call ModifyAutoSnapshotPolicyEx.

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Test

RAM authorization

The table below describes the authorization required to call this API. You can define it in a Resource Access Management (RAM) policy. The table's columns are detailed below:

  • Action: The actions can be used in the Action element of RAM permission policy statements to grant permissions to perform the operation.

  • API: The API that you can call to perform the action.

  • Access level: The predefined level of access granted for each API. Valid values: create, list, get, update, and delete.

  • Resource type: The type of the resource that supports authorization to perform the action. It indicates if the action supports resource-level permission. The specified resource must be compatible with the action. Otherwise, the policy will be ineffective.

    • For APIs with resource-level permissions, required resource types are marked with an asterisk (*). Specify the corresponding Alibaba Cloud Resource Name (ARN) in the Resource element of the policy.

    • For APIs without resource-level permissions, it is shown as All Resources. Use an asterisk (*) in the Resource element of the policy.

  • Condition key: The condition keys defined by the service. The key allows for granular control, applying to either actions alone or actions associated with specific resources. In addition to service-specific condition keys, Alibaba Cloud provides a set of common condition keys applicable across all RAM-supported services.

  • Dependent action: The dependent actions required to run the action. To complete the action, the RAM user or the RAM role must have the permissions to perform all dependent actions.

Action

Access level

Resource type

Condition key

Dependent action

ecs:CreateAutoSnapshotPolicy

create

*AutoSnapshotPolicy

acs:ecs:{#regionId}:{#accountId}:snapshotpolicy/*

None None

Request parameters

Parameter

Type

Required

Description

Example

regionId

string

Yes

The region to which the automatic snapshot policy belongs. You can call DescribeRegions to query the most recent region list.

cn-hangzhou

autoSnapshotPolicyName

string

No

The name of the automatic snapshot policy. The name must be 2 to 128 characters in length. The name must start with a letter and cannot start with http:// or https://. The name can contain digits, colons (:), underscores (_), and hyphens (-).

Default value: null.

TestName

timePoints

string

Yes

The points in time at which automatic snapshots are created. The time is displayed in UTC+8. Unit: hours. Valid values: 0 to 23, which represent the 24 points in time from 00:00 to 23:00. For example, 1 indicates 01:00. Format description:

  • The parameter value must be a JSON array. For example, ["1"] indicates that automatic snapshots are created at 01:00.

  • To create multiple automatic snapshots within a day, specify multiple points in time separated by commas (,). You can specify a maximum of 24 points in time. For example, ["1","3","5"] indicates that automatic snapshots are created at 01:00, 03:00, and 05:00.

Note

If a disk contains a large amount of data and the time required to create an automatic snapshot exceeds the interval between two consecutive points in time, the next point in time is skipped. For example, you set 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, and 12:00 as the points in time for automatic snapshot creation. The snapshot creation starts at 09:00 and is completed at 10:20, which takes 80 minutes. The system skips the 10:00 point in time and creates the next automatic snapshot at 11:00.

["0", "1", … "23"]

repeatWeekdays

string

Yes

The days of the week on which automatic snapshots are created. Unit: days. The cycle is weekly. Valid values: 1 to 7. For example, 1 indicates Monday. Format description:

  • The parameter value must be a JSON array. For example, ["1"] indicates that automatic snapshots are created every Monday.

  • To create multiple automatic snapshots within a week, specify multiple days separated by commas (,). You can specify a maximum of 7 days. For example, ["1","3","5"] indicates that automatic snapshots are created every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

["1","2"]

retentionDays

integer

Yes

The retention period of automatic snapshots. Unit: days. Valid values:

  • -1: Automatic snapshots are permanently retained.

  • 1 to 65535: Automatic snapshots are retained for the specified number of days.

Default value: -1.

30

EnableCrossRegionCopy

boolean

No

Specifies whether to enable automatic cross-region replication.

  • true: enables automatic cross-region replication.

  • false: disables automatic cross-region replication.

false

TargetCopyRegions

string

No

The destination region to which snapshots are replicated. You can specify only one destination region.

["cn-hangzhou"]

StorageLocationArn

string

No

Note

This parameter is not publicly available.

null

CopiedSnapshotsRetentionDays

integer

No

The retention period of cross-region snapshot replicas. Unit: days. Valid values:

  • -1: Snapshot replicas are permanently retained.

  • 1 to 65535: Snapshot replicas are retained for the specified number of days.

Default value: -1.

30

Tag

array<object>

No

The tags of the automatic snapshot policy.

object

No

Key

string

No

The tag key of the automatic snapshot policy. Valid values of N: 1 to 20. The tag key cannot be an empty string. The tag key can be up to 128 characters in length and cannot start with aliyun or acs:. The tag key cannot contain http:// or https://.

TestKey

Value

string

No

The tag value of the automatic snapshot policy. Valid values of N: 1 to 20. The tag value can be an empty string. The tag value can be up to 128 characters in length and cannot start with acs:. The tag value cannot contain http:// or https://.

TestValue

ResourceGroupId

string

No

The ID of the resource group.

rg-aek2kkmhmhs****

CopyEncryptionConfiguration

object

No

The backup encryption parameter object for snapshot geo-redundancy.

Encrypted

boolean

No

Specifies whether to enable encryption for cross-region snapshot backup. Valid values:

  • true: enables encryption.

  • false: disables encryption.

Default value: false.

false

KMSKeyId

string

No

The KMS key ID used for encrypted cross-region snapshot backup.

0e478b7a-4262-4802-b8cb-00d3fb40826X

Arn

array<object>

No

Note

This parameter is not publicly available.

object

No

RoleType

string

No

Note

This parameter is not publicly available.

hide

Rolearn

string

No

Note

This parameter is not publicly available.

hide

AssumeRoleFor

integer

No

Note

This parameter is not publicly available.

1000000000

Response elements

Element

Type

Description

Example

object

AutoSnapshotPolicyId

string

The ID of the automatic snapshot policy.

sp-bp12m37ccmxvbmi5****

RequestId

string

The request ID.

473469C7-AA6F-4DC5-B3DB-A3DC0DE3C83E

Examples

Success response

JSON format

{
  "AutoSnapshotPolicyId": "sp-bp12m37ccmxvbmi5****",
  "RequestId": "473469C7-AA6F-4DC5-B3DB-A3DC0DE3C83E"
}

Error codes

HTTP status code

Error code

Error message

Description

400 DiskCategory.OperationNotSupported The type of the specified disk does not support creating a snapshot. The operation is not supported by the current disk category.
400 InvalidSnapshotPolicyName.Malformed The specified autoSnapshotPolicyName is malformed.
400 Duplicate.TagKey The Tag.N.Key contain duplicate key. The specified tag key already exists. Tag keys must be unique.
400 InvalidTagKey.Malformed The specified Tag.n.Key is not valid. The specified Tag.N.Key parameter is invalid.
400 InvalidTagValue.Malformed The specified Tag.n.Value is not valid. The specified tag value is invalid.
400 InvalidParameter.EncryptedIllegal The specified parameter Encrypted must be true when kmsKeyId is not empty. The encryption feature is not enabled after a Key Management Service (KMS) key ID is specified.
400 InvalidParameter.KmsNotEnabled Failed to perform this operation because KMS is not activated. You need to activate KMS key management service.
400 InvalidParameter.Encrypted.KmsNotEnable Failed to perform this operation because KMS is not activated. You need to activate KMS key escrow service.
400 InvalidParam.EncryptedMismatch Creating encrypted disks with shared encrypted image requires replacing encryption keys. You must change the encryption key to create a cloud disk after sharing an encrypted image.
403 ParameterInvalid The specified RegionId parameter is invalid. The specified region ID is invalid.
403 AutoSnapshotPolicy.QuotaExceed The maximum number of automatic snapshot policy has been reached.
403 InvalidAccountStatus.NotEnoughBalance Your account does not have enough balance.
403 InvalidAccountStatus.SnapshotServiceUnavailable Snapshot service has not been opened yet. The operation is not supported while the snapshot service is not activated.
403 InvalidParameter.TargetCopyRegions The specified TargetCopyRegions is invalid.
403 InvalidParameter.CopiedSnapshotsRetentionDays The specified CopiedSnapshotsRetentionDays is invalid.
403 InvalidParameter.KMSKeyId.KMSUnauthorized ECS service does not have permission to access your KMS key. Please verify that the specified KMS key has authorized the ECS service.
403 InvalidOperation.KMSKeyIdNotFound The specified KMSKeyId not found, %s. The associated KMS encryption key cannot be found. Verify that the KMS encryption key is valid.
403 Abs.InvalidAction.RegionNotSupport This region does not support this action. The operation is not supported in the region.
403 InvalidParameter.KMSKeyId.CMKNotEnabled The CMK (Customer Master Key) must be in an active state. The CMK (Customer Master Key) must be in an active state.
403 InvalidParameter.KMSKeyId.CMKUnauthorized The CMK(Customer Master Key) lacks authorization to add tags to the ECS service. The CMK(Customer Master Key) lacks authorization to add tags to the ECS service.
403 InvalidStorageLocationArn.Malformed The specified parameter StorageLocationArn is malformed.
404 InvalidResourceGroup.NotFound The ResourceGroup provided does not exist in our records. The specified resource group does not exist.

See Error Codes for a complete list.

Release notes

See Release Notes for a complete list.