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Manage Your Backup Snapshots

On this page

  • Required Access
  • Delete a Backup Snapshot
  • In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.
  • Go to the Backup page for your cluster.
  • Select the snapshot to delete.
  • View Backup Snapshots
  • In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.
  • Go to the Backup page for your cluster.
  • Click Snapshots.
  • In Atlas, go to the Backup details for your project.
  • View the list of clusters.
  • Take On-Demand Snapshots
  • In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.
  • Open the On-Demand Snapshot modal.
  • Take the snapshot.
  • In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.
  • Go to the Backup page for your cluster.
  • View the on-demand snapshot.

While most Atlas snapshot operations are automated according to your backup policies, you can also:

  • View snapshots

  • Manually delete snapshots

  • Initiate on-demand snapshots between planned backups.

Required Access

To take or delete a backup snapshot, you must have Project Owner access to the project. Users with Organization Owner access must add themselves as a Project Owner to the project before they can take or delete a backup snapshot.

To view backup snapshots, you must have Project Read Only access to the project. Users with Organization Owner access must add themselves as a Project Owner to the project before they can take or delete a backup snapshot.

Delete a Backup Snapshot

Note

If you have a Backup Compliance Policy enabled, you can't delete a backup snapshot.

You can delete a snapshot using either the Atlas CLI or the Atlas UI. To delete all copies of a snapshot affected by a multi-region Snapshot Distribution policy without deleting the policy itself, delete the snapshot from its original region.

To delete the backup snapshot you specify using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas backups snapshots delete <snapshotId> [options]

To learn more about the command syntax and parameters, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas backups snapshots delete.

Tip

See: Related Links

To delete a snapshot from the Atlas UI, perform the following procedure:

1

In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your desired project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your desired project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. If the Clusters page is not already displayed, click Database in the sidebar.

    The Clusters page displays.

2

Go to the Backup page for your cluster.

  1. Click your cluster's name.

  2. Click the Backup tab.

    If the cluster has no Backup tab, then Atlas backups are disabled for that cluster and no snapshots are available. You can enable backups when you scale the cluster.

    The Backup page displays.

3

Select the snapshot to delete.

Select the snapshot you wish to delete from the list under the Snapshots tab and click .

Deleting the original snapshot by any of these methods will propagate the deletion to all copies of that snapshot.

View Backup Snapshots

To list cloud backup snapshots for your project and cluster using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas backups snapshots list <clusterName> [options]

To return the details for the snapshot you specify using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas backups snapshots describe <snapshotId> [options]

To learn more about the syntax and parameters for the previous commands, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas backups snapshot list and atlas backups snapshots describe.

Tip

See: Related Links

Atlas displays existing snapshots for a given cluster on the Snapshots page. To view snapshots that Atlas has already taken:

1

In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your desired project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your desired project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. If the Clusters page is not already displayed, click Database in the sidebar.

    The Clusters page displays.

2

Go to the Backup page for your cluster.

  1. Click your cluster's name.

  2. Click the Backup tab.

    If the cluster has no Backup tab, then Atlas backups are disabled for that cluster and no snapshots are available. You can enable backups when you scale the cluster.

    The Backup page displays.

3

Click Snapshots.

Alternatively, to view a list of all M10+ clusters with cloud backup enabled:

1

In Atlas, go to the Backup details for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. In the sidebar, click Backup under the Security heading.

    The Backup details display.

2

View the list of clusters.

If you choose to retain backups from a cluster you terminate, they remain accessible here under their source cluster name until they expire or you delete them.

By default, Atlas displays both on-demand and policy-based snapshots. To view only policy-based snapshots:

  1. Click Policy under View Snapshots by.

    Alternatively, click On-demand to display only snapshots taken by clicking Take Snapshot Now.

Snapshots taken according to your backup policy display the frequency of the policy item that generated the snapshot in the Frequency column: Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, Daily, or Hourly.

Note

If overlapping policy items generate the same snapshot, Atlas associates the snapshot with the policy item with the longest retention time.

Example

The policy specifies a daily snapshot with two-day retention and a weekly snapshot every Saturday with three-week retention. Since the retention time for the weekly policy item is longer than that specified for the hourly policy item, Atlas displays a frequency of Weekly in the Frequency column on the Snapshots page for the snapshot taken on Saturday and retains it for three weeks.

You can change a zone's name in the Atlas UI. If you rename a zone, old snapshots' tooltip zone names aren't renamed.

Take On-Demand Snapshots

Atlas takes on-demand snapshots immediately, unlike scheduled snapshots which occur at regular intervals. If there is already an on-demand snapshot with a status of queued or inProgress, you must wait until Atlas has completed the on-demand snapshot before taking another. If there is already a scheduled snapshot with a status of queued or inProgress, you may queue an on-demand snapshot.

Note

If you have a Backup Compliance Policy enabled with a specified retention time for on-demand snapshots, you can't decrease the retention time for an on-demand snapshot after it's taken.

You must have the Organization Owner or Project Owner role to successfully call these endpoints.

To create a backup snapshot for your project and cluster using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas backups snapshots create <clusterName> [options]

To watch for a specific backup snapshot to become available using the Atlas CLI, run the following command:

atlas backups snapshots watch <snapshotId> [options]

To learn more about the syntax and parameters for the previous commands, see the Atlas CLI documentation for atlas backups snapshots create and atlas backups snapshots watch.

Tip

See: Related Links

To take an on-demand snapshot:

1

In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your desired project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your desired project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. If the Clusters page is not already displayed, click Database in the sidebar.

    The Clusters page displays.

2

Open the On-Demand Snapshot modal.

  1. Click the button below the cluster name.

  2. Click Take Snapshot Now.

3

Take the snapshot.

  1. In the On-Demand Snapshot modal, enter the following information:

    1. In the Retention box, enter the number of days that you want Atlas to retain the snapshot.

    2. In the Description box, enter a descriptive name for the snapshot.

  2. Click Take Snapshot.

To view an on-demand snapshot:

1

In Atlas, go to the Clusters page for your project.

  1. If it's not already displayed, select the organization that contains your desired project from the Organizations menu in the navigation bar.

  2. If it's not already displayed, select your desired project from the Projects menu in the navigation bar.

  3. If the Clusters page is not already displayed, click Database in the sidebar.

    The Clusters page displays.

2

Go to the Backup page for your cluster.

  1. Click your cluster's name.

  2. Click the Backup tab.

    If the cluster has no Backup tab, then Atlas backups are disabled for that cluster and no snapshots are available. You can enable backups when you scale the cluster.

    The Backup page displays.

3

View the on-demand snapshot.

Click Snapshots for the cluster.

Note

The Take Snapshot Now button also appears on the Snapshots page for the cluster.

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