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    Snapshot Without Freezing

    Take snapshots without filesystem freezing to minimize downtime

    Our KVM Cloud images have qemu-guest-agent installed and enabled by default. This allows our backend to interact with your instance in various ways, including filesystem freezing during snapshots.

    How Filesystem Freezing Works

    During the snapshot process, libvirt tells qemu-guest-agent to freeze (quiesce) your instance filesystem. The instance remains online, but I/O is suspended until the snapshot is ready to upload to our image store.

    This method is ideal for data consistency, but can cause significant functional downtime for instances with lots of data and/or activity.

    Bypassing Filesystem Freezing

    To bypass filesystem freezing for your snapshots/backups, simply stop qemu-guest-agent before taking a snapshot:

    Steps

    1. SSH into your instance
    2. Run command: systemctl stop qemu-guest-agent
    3. Create a snapshot from the Cloud Control Panel

    We recommend restarting qemu-guest-agent (systemctl start qemu-guest-agent) when the snapshot is done.

    Permanent Disable

    If you'd prefer to leave qemu-guest-agent off permanently (for future snapshots, automated backups, etc.):

    Disable (don't start on boot):

    systemctl disable qemu-guest-agent

    Or remove completely:

    # Debian/Ubuntu
apt remove qemu-guest-agent

# CentOS/Rocky/Alma
yum remove qemu-guest-agent

    Important Notes

    • The steps above apply to any instance launched from our KVM Cloud images after September 16, 2019. Contact us via support ticket if you want this ability enabled for instances launched before then.
    • This does NOT apply to instances launched from ISOs or any image that does not have qemu-guest-agent enabled.