Automatic Snapshots for Google (gcloud) Compute Engine

Bash script for Automatic Snapshots and Cleanup on Google Compute Engine. Requires no user input!

Inspiration (and the installation instructions) taken from AWS script aws-ec2-ebs-automatic-snapshot-bash

Looking for Version 1?

https://github.com/jacksegal/google-compute-snapshot/releases/tag/1.0.1

How it works

gcloud-snapshot.sh will:

• Determine the device ID of the Google Compute Engine server on which the script runs
• Get the Primary Disk ID attached to that instance
• Take a snapshot of Disk
• The script will then delete all associated snapshots taken by the script that are older than 7 days (optional: default snapshot retention can be changed by using -d flag)

Prerequisites

• cURL must be installed

• The VM must have the sufficient gcloud permissions, including "compute" set to "enabled":

  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31905966/gcloud-compute-list-networks-error-some-requests-did-not-succeed-insufficie#31928399

Installation

ssh on to the server you wish to have backed up

Install Script: Download the latest version of the snapshot script and make it executable:

cd ~
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jacksegal/google-compute-snapshot/master/gcloud-snapshot.sh
chmod +x gcloud-snapshot.sh
sudo mkdir -p /opt/google-compute-snapshot
sudo mv gcloud-snapshot.sh /opt/google-compute-snapshot/

To manually test the script:

sudo /opt/google-compute-snapshot/gcloud-snapshot.sh

Setup CRON: You should then setup a cron job in order to schedule a daily backup. Example cron for Debian based Linux:

0 5 * * * root /opt/google-compute-snapshot/gcloud-snapshot.sh >> /var/log/cron/snapshot.log 2>&1

Please note: the above command sends the output to a log file: /var/log/cron/snapshot.log - instructions for creating & managing the log file are below.

Manage CRON Output: You should then create a directory for all cron outputs and add it to logrotate:

• Create new directory:

sudo mkdir /var/log/cron 

• Create empty file for snapshot log:

sudo touch /var/log/cron/snapshot.log

• Change permissions on file:

sudo chgrp adm /var/log/cron/snapshot.log
sudo chmod 664 /var/log/cron/snapshot.log

• Create new entry in logrotate so cron files don't get too big :

sudo nano /etc/logrotate.d/cron

• Add the following text to the above file:

/var/log/cron/*.log {
    daily
    missingok
    rotate 14
    compress
    notifempty
    create 664 root adm
    sharedscripts
}

Snapshot Retention

By default snapshots will be kept for 7 days, however they can be kept for longer / shorter, by using the the -d flag:

Usage: ./snapshot.sh [-d <days>]

Options:

   -d  Number of days to keep snapshots. Snapshots older than this number deleted.
       Default if not set: 7 [OPTIONAL]

Limitations

• Only works for the primary disk on VM
• Only manages snapshots created by the script

Downloading the script and opening in Windows?

If you download the script and open it on a Windows machine, that may add windows character's to the file: jacksegal#1.