how to backup VM instance locally?

Google Cloud Compute Infrastructure
2

Hi @farzher ,

Welcome to Google Cloud Community!

Here’s a common ways to achieve a local backup of your machine image:

Exporting to a Cloud Storage Bucket:

This is the most recommended and reliable method. You export your Machine Image to a storage bucket, which creates a raw disk image file you can then download locally.

Steps:

1. Create a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) Bucket:

  • If you don’t already have one, create a GCS bucket in the same region as your Machine Image. You can do this through the Google Cloud Console, the gsutil command-line tool, or the Cloud SDK.
  • Example using gsutil:

gsutil mb -l <REGION_OF_YOUR_MACHINE_IMAGE> gs://<YOUR_BUCKET_NAME>

2. Export the Machine Image:

  • Use the gcloud compute images export command:

gcloud compute images export \

--destination-uri="gs://<YOUR_BUCKET_NAME>/<YOUR_EXPORTED_IMAGE_NAME>.tar.gz" \

--image="<YOUR_MACHINE_IMAGE_NAME>" \

--project="<YOUR_PROJECT_ID>" \

--export-format=tar.gz

  • <YOUR_BUCKET_NAME>: The name of the bucket you created.
  • <YOUR_EXPORTED_IMAGE_NAME>: The desired name for the exported file (e.g., my-image-backup).
  • <YOUR_MACHINE_IMAGE_NAME>: The name of the Machine Image you want to back up.
  • <YOUR_PROJECT_ID>: Your Google Cloud Project ID.
  • –export-format=tar.gz: Specifies that the export should be a compressed TAR archive of the raw disk image.

3. Download the Exported File:

  • Use gsutil cp to copy the file to your local machine:

gsutil cp gs://<YOUR_BUCKET_NAME>/<YOUR_EXPORTED_IMAGE_NAME>.tar.gz /path/to/your/local/directory

  • /path/to/your/local/directory: The directory on your local machine where you want to save the file.

4. Extract the RAW disk image (Optional):

  • If you want to access the raw disk image, extract the tar.gz file using a tool like tar:

tar -xvzf <YOUR_EXPORTED_IMAGE_NAME>tar.gz

  • This will give you a .raw or .img file.

For additional reference, you may check the documentation below:

  1. Export a custom image to Cloud Storage

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