Snapshots and clones, explained
Copy-on-write snapshots, when to use them, and how clones differ.
3 min read
Snapshots on Vintony VPS are copy-on-write at the storage layer. Taking one is sub-second; the snapshot is stored in the same region as the source. Cross-region replication is opt-in on Business and Enterprise tiers.
Use a snapshot before any risky change: package upgrades, kernel reboots, schema migrations. The snapshot is a point-in-time view of the disk; restoring rolls the whole disk back, including filesystem state.
Clones differ in that they produce a new, independent VPS from the snapshot. The clone runs alongside the original; the two diverge after creation. Useful for spinning up a staging environment, debugging a flaky issue without touching production, or load-testing against a copy of real data.
Snapshots are billed at $0.05/GB/month; clones are billed at the VPS rate as long as they exist. Both are charged to the same account that owns the source.