About volume reversion

This page provides an overview on snapshot-based volume reversion.

About volume reversion

Google Cloud NetApp Volumes lets you revert a volume to a previous state using the data captured in a snapshot. Volume reversion restores all the contents of a volume back to the point in time a snapshot was taken. During reversion, any snapshot created after the snapshot you're reverting to is lost. To maintain the data from those snapshots, we recommend that you create a new volume from a snapshot or restore specific data with snapshots instead.

Common use cases for volume reversion

You can revert a volume to test and upgrade applications or to fend off ransomware attacks. Volume reversion is similar to overwriting the volume with a backup, but only takes a few seconds. You can revert a volume to a snapshot independent of the size of the volume.

Considerations

Consider the following aspects of volume reversion:

  • Volume reversion takes a few seconds and happens while the volume is online and used by clients.

  • Reverting a volume to a prior state deletes any snapshot data taken after the snapshot you're using for reversion and the operation is irreversible.

  • If a volume has existing backups, you can't revert it to a previous snapshot in the Flex File service level.

    • To revert the existing volume to a snapshot, you must first delete all backups associated with that volume.

    • Alternatively, you can create a new volume from the selected snapshot. You don't need to delete any backups, but the new volume is separate from the original volume.

  • Volumes with replications should revert to the latest replication snapshot to maintain the replication. Reverting to an older snapshot breaks the replication process and requires you to start a new replication if necessary.

  • To avoid potential data corruption, we recommend that you stop applications using the volume before you perform volume reversion.

What's next

Use the volume reversion instructions to revert a volume from a snapshot.