Snapshots

Last change on 2025-06-25 • Created on 2025-06-25 • ID: ST-C2A0D

Overview

Snapshots capture the current state of the data in a Storage Box at a specific point in time and track any changes made after the snapshot is taken. When you restore a snapshot, all changes made since its creation are undone, reverting the data to its original state at the time the snapshot was taken:

  • Modified data is replaced with the original content.
  • Deleted data is brought back.
  • New data — including data from newer snapshots! — is deleted.

Important: Note that snapshots themselves are also saved as data on the Storage Box. When you restore a snapshot, any data created after the snapshot was taken — including data from newer snapshots! — will be deleted. If snapshot data on the Storage Box is deleted, it means that this specific snapshot is lost permanently.

Click here to view an example
Example:
Snapshot 1
 root
 ├── example-1.txt
 └── /.zfs/snapshot/
     └── snapshot-1/
Snapshot 2
 root
 ├── example-1.txt
 ├── example-2.txt
 └── /.zfs/snapshot/
     ├── snapshot-1/
     └── snapshot-2/
Current State
 root
 ├── example-1.txt
 ├── example-2.txt
 ├── example-3.txt
 └── /.zfs/snapshot/
     ├── snapshot-1/
     └── snapshot-2/
When you restore Snapshot 1, it will delete example-2.txt, example-3.txt and snapshot-2.

When you restore Snapshot 2, it will delete example-3.txt.

We offer two different types of snapshots:

  • Automatic snapshots are taken automatically on a set schedule, which you can customize for your needs (e.g. daily, weekly or monthly, at a specific time). Each Storage Box has a maximum of 10/20/30/40 snapshot slots, depending on your Storage Box plan. You can therefore have up to 10/20/30/40 snapshots at the same time. Once the slot limit is reached, the oldest snapshot will automatically be deleted as soon as a new snapshot is created. You can lower the slot limit as needed.

  • A manual snapshot is taken when you manually trigger it yourself. They are saved until you decide to delete them. Manual snapshots are never deleted automatically.

ℹ   Snapshots are NOT full backups
Snapshots only track changes — they do not store copies of data that hasn't been modified. For this reason, snapshots are not full backups and cannot be used as basis to create new Storage Boxes. Their sole purpose is to restore a previous state of the same Storage Box from which the snapshot was originally taken.

Pricing

We do not charge for snapshots of Storage Boxes but they do consume storage space from your Storage Box's storage capacity. This is because the snapshots are saved on your Storage Box like this:

your-storage-box
├── your-file-1
├── your-file-2
└── /.zfs/snapshot/
    ├── snapshot-1/
    └── snapshot-2/

If you wish, you can hide the snapshot directory from view so that it is not visible in directory listings on the Storage Box. Note that the snapshots still consume storage space even if you make them invisible.

Storage space

When you take a snapshot, it does NOT create a full copy of all existing data. Instead, it merely captures the current state of the Storage Box and tracks all changes made after the snapshot was taken. Only when a file is modified or deleted does the snapshot save a full copy of that specific file's original content.

Snapshots only consume storage space for data copies. This means:

  • As long as no files are changed, deleted, or added, the snapshot does not consume any storage space.
  • When you modify or delete a file, the snapshot consumes storage space for the full data copy of that file.
  • When you add new files, the snapshot does not consume any additional storage space for that file.

As a result, a snapshot does not consume any storage space on the Storage Box immediately after creation. Storage usage only begins to grow as changes are made to the data after the snapshot was taken.

Access to snapshots

All snapshots are stored on your Storage Box in the directory /.zfs/snapshot or /home/.zfs/snapshot (if using SSH protocol on port 23). In this directory, there is a subfolder for each snapshot that maps the Storage Box at the time of the snapshot. You can download individual files or entire directories as usual. It is not possible to write to the /.zfs directory or its subfolder. You can hide the snapshot directory from view so that it is not visible in directory listings on the Storage Box. To enable / disable the visibility of the snapshot directory on the Storage Box, open Hetzner Console, navigate to your Storage Box, select "Snapshots" in the upper menu bar, and set the option Display snapshot directory.

In addition, all snapshots are also listed in Hetzner Console.

Resources and attributes

The following resources and attributes are associated with this feature:

Limits

  • Up to 10/20/30/40 manual snapshots per BX11/BX21/BX31/BX41 Storage Box respectively
  • Up to 10/20/30/40 automatic snapshot slots per BX11/BX21/BX31/BX41 Storage Box respectively
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