---
title: "How snapshots work"
description: "What an E2E snapshot of a node or a volume holds, when you can take one, how you use it, and how snapshots are kept and charged."
content_type: "concept"
product: "snapshots"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/snapshots/concepts/how-snapshots-work/"
---

# How snapshots work

A snapshot holds a node or a volume as it was when you took it. It stays in your account
as a saved point you can build from, next to the resource it came from.

## What a snapshot holds

- A node snapshot holds the node's root disk. When you take it, you can include one,
  several, or all of the node's attached volumes, so one snapshot covers the node and its extra
  storage together.
- A volume snapshot holds the data on that one volume.

## Using a snapshot

To get a volume's data back, open the volume's **Snapshots** tab and choose **Create Volume**
from the snapshot's **Actions** menu once the snapshot reads **Complete**. You get a new volume
with the data as it was at that point, and the original volume stays as it is. See
[Create a volume snapshot](/myaccount/volumes/how-to/create-a-volume-snapshot/).

To build nodes from a node snapshot, choose **Save as Image** on it. The image is tied to the moment
the snapshot was taken, and you launch new nodes from it like any saved image. See
[Create an image from a snapshot](/myaccount/node/how-to/create-an-image-from-a-snapshot/).

## When you can take one

A node snapshot works on nodes in the C3, M3, SDC3, GDC3, E1, and E1WC families, while the node
is **Running** or **Powered off**, and unlocked. On a prepaid account, your infra-credit balance
needs to be zero or more. While the snapshot is being taken, leave the node as it is:
reinstalling, rebooting, or locking it can wait until the snapshot finishes.

If a volume is exporting to Object Storage, take its snapshot once the export finishes. To
detach a volume, let any snapshot in progress on it finish first.

## Encryption

A snapshot of an encrypted volume is encrypted too, and a snapshot of an unencrypted volume is
not. When you create a new volume from a snapshot, choose encryption again at creation if you
want it on the new volume. See [Encrypt a volume](/myaccount/volumes/how-to/encrypt-a-volume/).

## What a snapshot costs

You pay per GB per hour for the storage each snapshot uses, for as long as you keep it. The
price shows before you confirm, for a node snapshot and a volume snapshot alike. For current
rates, see [E2E's pricing page](https://www.e2enetworks.com/pricing). A lifecycle rule keeps the
cost in check by clearing out scheduled snapshots once they reach an age you set; see
[Snapshot schedules and lifecycle rules](/myaccount/snapshots/concepts/scheduling-and-retention/).

## Keeping and deleting snapshots

A snapshot stays in your account until you delete it or a lifecycle rule clears it out.
Deleting a snapshot leaves the node or volume it came from as it is.

To hold on to a snapshot, lock it. A locked node snapshot stays until you
take the lock off, whether the delete would come from you or from a lifecycle rule; see
[Delete a snapshot](/myaccount/node/how-to/delete-a-snapshot/). On a volume, **Lock** is in the
snapshot's **Actions** menu, and locking a scheduled snapshot keeps its lifecycle rule from
deleting it.

Deleting a volume deletes its snapshots along with it. To keep the data from one of them,
create a new volume from it first. See [Delete a volume](/myaccount/volumes/how-to/delete-a-volume/).

## Snapshots and changes to the resource

A few changes start with clearing a snapshot out of the way:

- To upgrade a volume, delete its snapshots, or create a new volume from one and upgrade that.
  See [Upgrade a volume](/myaccount/volumes/how-to/upgrade-a-volume/).
- To change a node's plan, delete its snapshot first. See
  [Upgrade a node's plan](/myaccount/node/how-to/upgrade-node-plan/).
- To increase an E1 or E1WC node's root storage, delete the root disk's snapshots first. See
  [Increase a node's root storage](/myaccount/node/how-to/increase-root-storage/).