Snapshots

Information about snapshots

A Cisco SD-WAN Manager snapshot is a saved copy of the state of a Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance. Snapshots provide recovery points for the Cisco CloudOps team to use in case of disaster recovery. The SD-WAN Portal manages the mechanics of saving the snapshots.

By contrast, SD-WAN Controllers and SD-WAN Validators are stateless and do not require snapshots.

Which Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN installations store snapshots?

In Cisco SD-WAN Cloud and Cisco SD-WAN Cloud-Pro environments, the SD-WAN Portal manages saving snapshots of SD-WAN Manager, which are saved to cloud storage managed by Cisco. Snapshots are stored in the primary region selected when setting up the SD-WAN fabric.

Viewing snapshot details

You can view details of the saved snapshots in the SD-WAN Portal. See View Snapshots. Snapshots cannot be downloaded.

Snapshot types

Table 1. Snapshot types

Snapshot type

 Description

When are they taken

How many are retained

How long are they retained

On-demand

Any time you need to save a recovery point, such as before a major change to your Cisco SD-WAN Manager software, you can take an on-demand snapshot.

Freeze configuration changes and allocate up to 8 hours before the change window for taking and saving the on-demand snapshot.

See Take an On-Demand Snapshot.

On-demand

1

15 days, or sooner if you take another on-demand snapshot.

Regular

Regular snapshots are saved at an interval of 1 to 4 days, which you can configure. The timing of the snapshot is approximately midnight according to SD-WAN Manager region.

When creating the fabric, set the interval here:

Advanced Options > Edit > Snapshot Settings

See Create a Cisco SD-WAN Cloud-Pro Overlay Network.

For an existing fabric, you can edit the snapshot interval in the SD-WAN Portal here:

View details > Snapshots > Actions > Edit snapshot frequency

User-configured interval of 1-4 days.

7

The oldest of 7 is discarded when a new snapshot is created.

The retention duration is:

(7 * user-configured-interval), which is 7 to 28 days.

Golden

You can mark a single regular or on-demand snapshot as Golden to save it for a longer period. Use this when SD-WAN Manager is in an ideal state for a long-term recovery point.

Marking a new snapshot as Golden removes the Golden designation from the previous Golden snapshot. The previous Golden snapshot is then subject to removal according to its expiration schedule.

This is an existing regular or on-demand snapshot manually marked as Golden.

1

90 days

Take an on-demand snapshot

You can take an on-demand snapshot of Cisco SD-WAN Manager configuration when needed. In general, take a snapshot before any major change window.

When you take an on-demand snapshot, freeze configuration changes and allocate up to 8 hours before the change window to allow the snapshot to be completed.

An on-demand snapshot is stored for 15 days from the date of its creation, then it is deleted automatically. A new on-demand snapshot replaces a stored existing one, so only one on-demand snapshot is stored at a time.


Note

On-demand snapshots are not available for shared tenants.

  1. From the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Portal, navigate to the list of available overlays.

    The Dashboard > Overlays page appears.

  2. Click the name of the overlay for which you want to take a snapshot.

  3. From the Dashboard > Cisco Hosted Overlays > Details page, click the Snapshot tile.

  4. From the Actions drop-down menu, choose On-Demand Snapshot.

  5. In the On-Demand Snapshot area, turn on the switch for the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance for which you want to take the snapshot.

    For a Cisco SD-WAN Manager cluster, turn on the switches for each Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance in the cluster.

  6. Click Submit.

    The snapshot is created. The creation process can take up 8 hours to complete, depending on the amount of data in Cisco SD-WAN Manager.

View snapshots

Before you begin

You need to have a Cisco SD-WAN Cloud-Pro controller set for your overlay to view the snapshot details.

For more information, see Create a Cisco SD-WAN Cloud-Pro Overlay Network.

For more information on snapshots, see Information About Snapshots.

View snapshots

  1. From the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Portal dashboard, navigate to the list of available overlays.

    The Dashboard > Overlays page displays.

  2. Click the name of an overlay for which you want to view a snapshot.

  3. From the Dashboard > Cisco Hosted Overlays > Details page, click on the tile for Snapshot.

    The Dashboard > Cisco Hosted Overlays > Details > Snapshots page displays.

    Table 2. Snapshot Fields

    Field

    Description

    Snapshot ID (*denotes golden snapshot)

    Specifies the snapshot ID.

    If a snapshot is a golden snapshot, it is denoted by an asterisk.

    Name

    Specifies the name of the snapshot.

    Version

    Specifies the version number of the Cisco SD-WAN Manager software.

    Progress

    Specifies the progress of the snapshot creation process.

    Duration

    Specifies the duration of the snapshot creation process.

    State

    Specifies the state of the snapshot creation process.

    Device

    Specifies the disk on Cisco SD-WAN Manager for which the snapshot was taken. There are either two or three disks on the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance, depending on which version the device was originally provisioned on.

    For successful disaster recovery, snapshots of all the disks, taken at the same time, are used to recover and build the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance.

    Golden

    Specifies if the snapshot is a golden snapshot.

    Available values are as follows:

    • false

    • true

    Region

    Specifies the region where this snapshot is stored.

    Type

    Specifies the type of snapshot.

    Available values are as follows:

    • REGULAR

    • ON-DEMAND

    • GOLDEN

    Overlay ID

    Specifies the overlay ID.

    Overlay

    Specifies the overlay name and an ID.

    Instance ID

    Specifies the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance ID.

    Instance

    Specifies the Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance name and ID.

    Actions

    Click Make Golden Snapshot to mark a specific date snapshot as golden.