Configuring system snapshots

Information about system snapshots

A Cisco SD-WAN Manager snapshot is a saved state of a Cisco SD-WAN Manager instance. Snapshots provide recovery points that the CloudOps team can use to restore your system. The SD-WAN Portal automatically saves the snapshots.

By contrast, you do not need to create snapshots for SD-WAN Controllers or SD-WAN Validators because they are stateless.

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. The system stores snapshots in the primary region that you select when you set up the SD-WAN fabric.

Viewing snapshot details

You can view details of the saved snapshots in the SD-WAN Portal. You cannot download the snapshots themselves.

Snapshot types

This table describes the available snapshot types.

Table 1. Snapshot types
Snapshot type	Description	When they are taken	How many are retained	How long they are retained
On-demand	You can take an on-demand snapshot at any time, such as before a major change to your Cisco SD-WAN Manager configuration. Before the change window, freeze configuration changes and allocate up to eight hours (480 minutes) to create and save the on-demand snapshot. See Take an On-Demand Snapshot.	On-demand	1	15 days. If you take another on-demand snapshot, retention ends sooner.
Regular	Regular snapshots are saved at a configurable interval of one to four days. The snapshot typically occurs at midnight in the region of SD-WAN Manager. Set the interval during fabric creation: 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: View details > Snapshots > Actions > Edit snapshot frequency	Interval you define: one to four days.	7	The oldest of seven is discarded when a new snapshot is created. The retention duration is: (7 * user-configured-interval), which is seven 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. We recommend that you take a snapshot before any major change window.

When you take an on-demand snapshot, freeze configuration changes. Allocate up to 8 hours before the change window to ensure the snapshot is completed.

An on-demand snapshot is stored for 15 days after its creation, then it is deleted automatically. Only one on-demand snapshot is retained at any given time, as a new on-demand snapshot replaces the existing stored snapshot.

Note

On-demand snapshots are not available for shared tenants.

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

The Dashboard > Overlays page appears.
Click the name of the fabric for which you want to take a snapshot.
From the Dashboard > Cisco Hosted Overlays > Details page, click the Snapshot tile.
From the Actions drop-down menu, choose On-Demand Snapshot.
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.
Click Submit.

Snapshot creation starts. Completing the snapshot can take up to 8 hours to complete, depending on the amount of data in Cisco SD-WAN Manager.

View snapshots

Before you begin

To view snapshot details, ensure that your overlay is associated with a Cisco SD-WAN Cloud-Pro controller.

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

For more information on snapshots, see Information About Snapshots.

View snapshots

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

The Dashboard > Overlays page displays.
Click the name of an overlay for which you want to view a snapshot.

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. Snapshots of all disks, taken at the same time, enable recovery and reconstruction of theCisco SD-WAN Manager instance during disaster recovery.
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 include: REGULAR, ON-DEMAND, and 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	To mark a specific date snapshot as golden, click Make Golden Snapshot.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Portal Configuration Guide

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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Portal Configuration Guide

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