'Does digital ocean snapshots include the operating system?
I want to move the data from one droplet to another with a new version of Ubuntu. I was thinking about using snapshots to do this but since i'm not a digital ocean expert i was wondering if the snapshot disk image just contains the data of the droplet or if it also contains the operating system info.
Solution 1:[1]
Yes, DigitalOcean snapshots are full disk images of Droplets. Refer to the documentation on snapshots for more information: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/images/snapshots/
There is a DigitalOcean guide for upgrading Ubuntu safely here: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-upgrade-to-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa. In the guide, you can select your current operating system version for specific upgrade instructions.
It is recommended to take a snapshot of the Droplet prior to performing an operating system upgrade. In case anything goes wrong, this will give you a backup to fall back to. Also read through the "Potential Pitfalls" section of the guide before starting the upgrade.
Solution 2:[2]
Short answer: Yes, a snapshot is a full disk image.
Longer answer: If you just want to upgrade the OS, you can follow Matthew Fisher's answer and perform a snapshot as a backup, then upgrade the OS version. If however you do actually want to move it between droplets, you can create DO block storage, mount it to the droplet, copy your data to the volume, then mount it to your replacement droplet.
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow
| Solution | Source |
|---|---|
| Solution 1 | Matthew Fisher MSCIS |
| Solution 2 | Sierra1011 |