Restore a VM from a snapshot

This document describes how to restore a virtual machine (VM) disk from an image disk snapshot that was created through Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped backup and restore procedures.

This document is for developers in platform administrator or application operator groups that manage VM Backup and restore operations. For more information, see Audiences for GDC air-gapped documentation.

Before you begin

To restore a VM disk from a snapshot, you must have the following:

• An existing snapshot.

Request IAM permissions

To manage VMs and VM disk restores, ask your Project IAM Admin to grant you the following roles:

• Project VirtualMachine Admin (project-vm-admin): Manages VMs in the project namespace.
• Backup Creator (backup-creator): Creates manual backups and restores.
• Project Viewer (project-viewer): Has read-only access to all resources within project namespaces.

Follow the steps to verify your access.

Restore a snapshot

Create a new VM from a disk snapshot by using the GDC console or the application programming interface (API).

Console

1. Sign in to the GDC console.
2. In the navigation menu, click Virtual Machines > Snapshots.
3. Select a project.
4. In the list of snapshots, find the snapshot to restore and click Restore.
5. In the New disk name field, enter the name of the disk to restore the backup in.
6. Enter a Restore name for the restore.
7. Click Restore.

API

Create a VirtualMachineRestoreRequest custom resource to initiate the restore process.

The restoration of application capability is subject to the VM operating system or image. Create a VirtualMachineRestoreRequest custom resource to initiate the restore process:

apiVersion: virtualmachine.gdc.goog/v1
kind: VirtualMachineRestoreRequest
metadata:
  name: RESTORE_REQUEST_NAME
  namespace: PROJECT_NAME
spec:
  virtualMachineBackup: VM_BACKUP_NAME
  restoreName: RESTORE_NAME
  restoredResourceName: RESTORE_PREFIX
  restoredResourceDescription: RESTORED_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTION

Replace the following:

• VM_BACKUP_NAME: the name of the VirtualMachineBackup resource to restore from.
• PROJECT_NAME: the name of the GDC project.
• RESTORE_REQUEST_NAME: the name of the restore request that is being initiated.
• RESTORE_NAME: the name to give the restore that is being initiated.
• RESTORE_PREFIX: a prefix that is appended to the start of the name for backups that this request restores.
• RESTORED_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTION: description of why the restore is performed.

The result of the restore creates a new disk with the same configuration and disk state as the snapshot, completing the data backup and recovery process.

View a restore

View a restore using the GDC console or kubectl command-line interface (CLI).

Console

1. Sign in to the GDC console.
2. In the navigation menu, click Virtual Machines > Snapshots.
3. Select a project.
4. Click the Restores tab.
5. In the list of restores, click the restore name to view its details.

kubectl

View a restore by listing the restores and viewing their details:

1. List the existing snapshots:

   kubectl get virtualmachinerestores.virtualmachine.gdc.goog -n PROJECT_NAME
   

   Replace PROJECT_NAME with the name of the project.

2. In the list, find the restore that you want to view.

3. View the restore details:

   kubectl describe virtualmachinerestore.virtualmachine.gdc.goog RESTORE_NAME -n PROJECT_NAME
   

   Replace the following:

   • RESTORE_NAME: the name of the restore.
   • PROJECT_NAME: the name of the project.

Delete a restore

Delete a restore by using the kubectl command-line interface (CLI).

View a restore by listing the restores and viewing their details:

1. List the existing restores:

   kubectl get virtualmachinerestores.virtualmachine.gdc.goog -n PROJECT_NAME
   

   Replace PROJECT_NAME with the name of the project.

2. In the list, find the restore that you want to delete.

3. Delete the restore:

   kubectl delete virtualmachinerestores.virtualmachine.gdc.goog RESTORE_NAME -n PROJECT_NAME
   

   Replace the following:

   • RESTORE_NAME: the name of the restore.
   • PROJECT_NAME: the name of the project.

What's next

• Clean up labels after restoring VM-attached disks