To meet diverse backup requirements—such as high-frequency short-term backups and long-term data retention—bind multiple automatic snapshot policies to a single disk. This lets you manage different needs for snapshot creation time, frequency, and retention period.
Eligibility
Ensure the disk meets one of the following conditions:
The disk is attached to an ECS instance that is in the Running or Stopped state.
The disk is Unattached and was previously attached to an ECS instance.
Call the DescribeDisks operation and check the AttachedTime field to determine if the disk has an attachment history.
Procedure
Set automatic snapshot policies for a single disk
Go to ECS console - Block Storage. In the top navigation bar, select the target region and resource group.
In the Actions column for the target disk, click Configure Snapshot Policy.
On the Configure Automatic Snapshot Policy page, add or remove policies. A single disk supports up to 10 automatic snapshot policies.
Add a policy: In the Automatic Snapshot Policy drop-down list, select an existing policy. Or click Create Policy, follow the on-screen instructions to complete policy creation, and then click Confirm Settings.
Delete a policy: In the Automatic Snapshot Policy list, click the X icon next to the policy, then click Confirm Settings.
ImportantAfter deleting an automatic snapshot policy, snapshots are no longer created automatically. Ensure your data remains protected.
Bind disks to an automatic snapshot policy
Go to the ECS console > Automatic Snapshot Policies page. In the upper-left corner, select the resource group and region where the target resource resides.
In the Actions column for the target policy, perform one of the following operations:
Bind disks: Click Bind Disk. In the Available Disks section, select the target disks and click Confirm Binding.
You cannot select disks already bound to this policy or disks that have reached the 10-policy limit.
Unbind disks: Click Unbind Disk. In the Available Disks section, select the target disks and click Confirm Unbinding.
ImportantAfter unbinding a disk, snapshots are no longer created automatically based on this policy. Ensure your data remains protected.
Billing
Creating a snapshot policy is free. However, you incur charges based on the task type after the policy runs successfully. You can reduce snapshot storage costs by enabling automatic snapshots to be deleted with their disks, periodically deleting unused automatic snapshots, and archiving snapshots.
Automatic snapshot creation tasks: All snapshots created by a policy are billed based on their snapshot size at the standard snapshot storage rate.
Cross-region replication tasks: If the policy enables cross-region replication, you incur snapshot replication traffic fees and standard snapshot storage fees in the destination region, in addition to standard snapshot fees in the source region.
Quotas and limits
A single disk supports up to 10 automatic snapshot policies.
The number of concurrent snapshot creation tasks (automatic and manual) for a single disk is limited. If this limit is exceeded when a policy triggers, the task is skipped and retried at the next scheduled time. Task limits for different disk types are as follows:
Disk type
Task limit
ESSD series disks (ESSD, ESSD AutoPL, ESSD Entry, and zone-redundant ESSD)
10
Previous-generation disks (standard SSD, ultra disk, and basic disk)
1
If a policy enables cross-region snapshot replication, ensure no other replication task exists for the same disk, source region, and destination region. If one exists, the new task is skipped and retried at the next scheduled time.
For the maximum number of automatic snapshots per disk, see Snapshot limits. When the automatic snapshot count reaches this limit, the system deletes the oldest automatic snapshot created by the policy. Plan your snapshot retention period carefully to avoid accidental deletion of important snapshots.
More operations
Enable automatic snapshot deletion on disk release
By default, automatic snapshots follow the retention period defined in their policy and are not deleted when the disk is released. Enable the Delete Automatic Snapshots with Disk property as needed.
After enabling Delete Automatic Snapshots with Disk, all automatic snapshots for the disk are deleted immediately upon disk release—even if their retention period has not expired. This applies to manual release, release with the instance, or operating system replacement.
Go to ECS console - Block Storage. In the top navigation bar, select the target region and resource group.
In the Actions column for the target disk, click .
In the Modify Disk Attributes dialog box, select the Delete Automatic Snapshots with Disk option.
You can clear this option later to disable Delete Automatic Snapshots with Disk
Click OK.
How do I view created automatic snapshots?
After a policy runs, snapshots appear automatically on the ECS console > Snapshots page.
Automatic snapshots use the naming format auto2.0_yyyyMMdd_SnapshotPolicyId, and their Source is Automatic Creation. The format includes:
auto2.0: Indicates an automatic snapshot.
See What is the difference between manual and automatic snapshots?
yyyyMMdd: The snapshot creation date, where y is year, M is month, and d is day.
SnapshotPolicyId: The ID of the automatic snapshot policy that created the snapshot.
For example, auto2.0_20241225_sp-2zeff8vy17u91rn5**** represents an automatic snapshot created on December 25, 2024, using the automatic snapshot policy with ID sp-2zeff8vy17u91rn5****.