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Snapshot states

Updated · 4 min read

The status and protection status values a snapshot reports, what FAILED protection means, and when a snapshot can be used as a clone source.

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A snapshot reports two independent fields: status describes the copy itself, and protectionStatus describes whether it’s protected. A snapshot is usable as a clone source only when it reports status: COMPLETED and protectionStatus: PROTECTED. Creating, protecting, unprotecting, and deleting a snapshot are asynchronous, and these fields tell you how the work ended.

Status

A new snapshot starts PENDING and moves to COMPLETED when the copy finishes, or to ERROR if creation fails. Deleting a COMPLETED or ERROR snapshot moves it to DELETING and then DELETED, or to ERROR if deletion fails.

StatusMeaningBilled
PENDINGThe platform is copying the volume’s data.No
COMPLETEDThe copy is finished.Yes
ERRORCreating or deleting the snapshot failed. statusReason says what failed.No
DELETINGThe platform is removing the snapshot.No
DELETEDThe snapshot is gone.No

While a snapshot is PENDING, progress reports PENDING and percentComplete shows how far the copy has got. progress is AVAILABLE once the data is fully copied, and UNAVAILABLE when no progress information exists.

When an operation fails

  • A snapshot that couldn’t be created ends in ERROR instead of COMPLETED. There’s no usable snapshot behind it. Delete it and take a new one.
  • A snapshot that couldn’t be deleted stays in your list as ERROR instead of reaching DELETED. Its copy may still exist, and it still blocks deleting the volume it was taken from. Delete it again once the cause is resolved.

statusReason is null for every status except ERROR.

Protection status

The protectionStatus values are below. A new snapshot starts UNPROTECTED. Protecting moves it through PROTECTING to PROTECTED; unprotecting moves it through UNPROTECTING back to UNPROTECTED. If either change fails, it ends in FAILED, from which you can protect or unprotect it again.

ValueClone sourceDeletable
UNPROTECTEDNoYes
PROTECTINGNoNo
PROTECTEDYes, if COMPLETEDNo
UNPROTECTINGNoNo
FAILEDNoNo

FAILED means the last protect or unprotect couldn’t be applied, so the snapshot’s real protection state is unknown. The platform treats it as neither protected nor unprotected. protectionStatusReason says why the change failed, and the snapshot’s data is unaffected. To settle the state, protect the snapshot again, or unprotect it, which is also the way to get it to a state you can delete.

Which status a protect or unprotect needs:

  • Protect needs status: COMPLETED. A PENDING snapshot has no finished copy yet; a DELETING, DELETED, or ERROR snapshot has nothing to protect.
  • Unprotect works on a COMPLETED snapshot and on an ERROR snapshot. Unprotecting an ERROR snapshot lets you delete it.

Asking for the protection state a snapshot already has succeeds and changes nothing. A refused protect or unprotect changes nothing about the snapshot.

Clone sources

A snapshot can be the source of a new volume, an image, or an instance’s volume launched from that image. Every one of those paths checks the same rule at the moment of use: status: COMPLETED and protectionStatus: PROTECTED. A snapshot that met the rule when an image was created but has since been unprotected or deleted no longer passes it.

Settled states

A COMPLETED snapshot stays usable as a clone source as long as it stays protected, and a DELETED snapshot stays gone. A deleted snapshot drops out of your snapshot list immediately. You can still look it up by its URN, with no time limit.