Volume Snapshots

Point-in-time copies of your deployment's volume data.

What Are Snapshots?

A volume snapshot captures the exact state of a volume at a specific moment. Snapshots let you:

Roll back to a known good state after a bad update
Protect data before risky operations like schema migrations
Duplicate state for testing or debugging purposes

Snapshots are stored on the provider node alongside your deployment and can be restored at any time while the deployment is active.

Creating a Snapshot

Open the Snapshots tab

Navigate to your deployment's detail page and click the Snapshots tab.

Click Create Snapshot

Click Create Snapshot. Optionally provide a label (e.g., "before-migration") to identify it later.

Wait for completion

The snapshot is created in the background. Large volumes may take a few seconds. The status changes to Ready once complete.

Snapshot Before Updates

Always take a snapshot before updating your deployment's SDL or running destructive operations. It's the fastest way to recover if something goes wrong.

Restoring from a Snapshot

Select a snapshot

On the Snapshots tab, find the snapshot you want to restore and click Restore.

Confirm the restore

A confirmation dialog warns that restoring will replace the current volume data. Click Confirm to proceed.

Container restart

The container restarts automatically with the restored volume data. This causes a brief downtime (typically a few seconds).

Destructive Operation

Restoring a snapshot replaces all current data in the volume. Any data written since the snapshot was taken will be lost. Consider creating a new snapshot of the current state before restoring an older one.

Automatic vs Manual Snapshots

Manual Snapshots

Created on-demand from the dashboard or API. Use these before deployments updates, migrations, or any time you want an explicit save point.

Automatic Snapshots

When enabled, Kova takes snapshots on a schedule (default: every 24 hours). Configure automatic snapshots from the deployment's Settings tab:

Setting	Default	Description
Enabled	Off	Toggle automatic snapshots
Interval	24h	Time between snapshots
Retention	7	Number of automatic snapshots to keep

Older automatic snapshots are pruned when the retention limit is reached. Manual snapshots are never automatically deleted.

API Reference

List Snapshots

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://app.kovanetwork.com/api/v1/deployments/:id/snapshots

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "snapshots": [
    {
      "id": "snap-a1b2c3",
      "label": "before-migration",
      "status": "ready",
      "size": "2.4 GB",
      "automatic": false,
      "createdAt": "2026-02-10T09:15:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

Create a Snapshot

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"label": "before-migration"}' \
  https://app.kovanetwork.com/api/v1/deployments/:id/snapshots

Restore a Snapshot

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://app.kovanetwork.com/api/v1/deployments/:id/snapshots/:snapshotId/restore