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--- title: Use volume snapshots with Azure Container Storage (version 2.x.x) with Azure Elastic SAN description: Take a snapshot of a persistent volume and restore it. author: saurabh0501 ms.service: azure-container-storage ms.topic: how-to ms.date: 01/28/2026 ms.author: kendownie # Customer intent: As a Kubernetes operator, I want to create and restore volume snapshots in Azure Container Storage, so that I can recover from potential data loss. --- # Use volume snapshots with Azure Container Storage Azure Container Storage is a cloud-based volume management, deployment, and orchestration service built for containers. This article shows how to take a point-in-time snapshot of a persistent volume and restore it with a new persistent volume claim (PVC). ## Limitations Volume snapshots aren't supported when you use ephemeral disk (local NVMe) as backing storage. ## Prerequisites [!INCLUDE [container-storage-prerequisites](../../../includes/container-storage-prerequisites.md)] - This article assumes you [installed Azure Container Storage](./install-container-storage-aks.md) on your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster and created a PVC using [Azure Elastic SAN](use-container-storage-with-elastic-san.md). ## Create a volume snapshot class A volume snapshot class defines snapshot settings. Follow these steps to create a volume snapshot class for Elastic SAN. 1. Create a YAML manifest file such as `acstor-volumesnapshotclass.yaml`. 1. Paste the following code. The volume snapshot class `name` value can be any value. ```yaml apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1 kind: VolumeSnapshotClass metadata: name: elasticsan-snapshot-class driver: san.csi.azure.com deletionPolicy: Delete ``` 1. Apply the manifest to create the volume snapshot class. ```azurecli-interactive kubectl apply -f acstor-volumesnapshotclass.yaml ``` When creation is complete, you see a message like: ```output volumesnapshotclass.snapshot.storage.k8s.io/elasticsan-snapshot-class created ``` You can also run `kubectl get volumesnapshotclass` to confirm creation. You should see output similar to this example: ```output NAME DRIVER DELETIONPOLICY AGE elasticsan-snapshot-class san.csi.azure.com Delete 11s ``` ## Create a volume snapshot Next, create a snapshot of an existing PVC and apply the volume snapshot class you created in the previous step. 1. Create a YAML manifest file such as `acstor-volumesnapshot.yaml`. 1. Paste the following code. Set `volumeSnapshotClassName` to the name of the volume snapshot class you created in the previous step. Set `persistentVolumeClaimName` to the name of the PVC you want to snapshot. The volume snapshot `name` value can be any value. ```yaml apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1 kind: VolumeSnapshot metadata: name: elasticsan-volume-snapshot spec: volumeSnapshotClassName: elasticsan-snapshot-class source: persistentVolumeClaimName: elasticsanpvc ``` 1. Apply the manifest to create the volume snapshot. ```azurecli kubectl apply -f acstor-volumesnapshot.yaml ``` When creation is complete, you see a message like: ```output volumesnapshot.snapshot.storage.k8s.io/elasticsan-volume-snapshot created ``` You can also run `kubectl get volumesnapshot` to check that the volume snapshot is created. If `READYTOUSE` is `true`, you can move on to the next step. ## Create a restored persistent volume claim Create a new PVC that uses the volume snapshot as a data source. 1. Create a YAML manifest file such as `acstor-pvc-restored.yaml`. 1. Paste the following code. The `storageClassName` must match the StorageClass you used when creating the original PVC. For the data source `name` value, use the name of the volume snapshot you created in the previous step. The PVC `metadata.name` value can be any value. ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: PersistentVolumeClaim metadata: name: pvc-elasticsan-snapshot-restored spec: accessModes: - ReadWriteOnce storageClassName: azuresan resources: requests: storage: 100Gi dataSource: name: elasticsan-volume-snapshot kind: VolumeSnapshot apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io ``` 1. Apply the manifest to create the PVC. ```azurecli kubectl apply -f acstor-pvc-restored.yaml ``` When creation is complete, you see a message like: ```output persistentvolumeclaim/pvc-elasticsan-snapshot-restored created ``` You can also run `kubectl describe pvc pvc-elasticsan-snapshot-restored` to check that the persistent volume is created. The status shows **Pending** with a message that it is waiting for the first consumer to be created before binding. > [!TIP] > If you need to reapply the YAML file to fix an error or make a change, delete the old PVC first: `kubectl delete pvc <pvc-name>`. ## Delete the original pod (optional) Before you create a new pod, you can delete the original pod that you created the snapshot from. 1. Run `kubectl get pods` to list the pods. Make sure you delete the correct pod. 1. To delete the pod, run `kubectl delete pod <pod-name>`. ## Create a new pod using the restored snapshot Create a new pod using the restored PVC. Create the pod using Flexible I/O Tester (fio) for benchmarking and workload simulation, and specify a mount path for the persistent volume. 1. Create a YAML manifest file such as `fio-pod-restore.yaml`. 1. Paste the following code. The persistent volume claim `claimName` should be the name of the restored PVC you created. The pod `metadata.name` value can be any value. ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: fio-restore spec: volumes: - name: iscsi-volume persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: pvc-elasticsan-snapshot-restored containers: - name: fio image: nixery.dev/shell/fio volumeMounts: - mountPath: /volume name: iscsi-volume ``` 1. Apply the manifest to deploy the pod. ```azurecli kubectl apply -f fio-pod-restore.yaml ``` You should see output similar to this example: ```output pod/fio-restore created ``` 1. Check that the pod is running and the PVC is bound: ```azurecli kubectl describe pod fio-restore kubectl describe pvc pvc-elasticsan-snapshot-restored ``` 1. Check fio testing to see its current status: ```azurecli kubectl exec -it fio-restore -- fio --name=benchtest --size=800m --filename=/volume/test --direct=1 --rw=randrw --ioengine=libaio --bs=4k --iodepth=16 --numjobs=8 --time_based --runtime=60 ``` You now have a pod that uses the restored PVC and can use it for your Kubernetes workloads. ## See also - [What is Azure Container Storage?](container-storage-introduction.md) - [Use Azure Container Storage with local NVMe](use-container-storage-with-local-disk.md)