Is the operating system reinstalled when I restore a backup?

No. The backup is fully restored to a new virtual machine, adjusted to match your plan and IP addresses, and started. Only after that is the previous state deleted.

VPS: Daily Backups, Restores, and Locked Actions

Where to find your VPS backups, how to turn off daily backups, why starting or reinstalling may be temporarily locked, and what happens when you restore a backup.

10 November 20263 min read0 Views0 helpful

Every VPS is backed up automatically each day. The entire disk is saved as a full backup on a separate backup server, not as a snapshot on the same host. Here you can find out where to find your backups, why some actions may be temporarily locked, and what happens when you restore a backup.

View backups

Open your VPS in the panel.
Go to Backups in the sidebar.
The Daily backup card shows when the backup runs (Daily at), the Last run, and the Next run. The platform sets the time, and you can't change it.
Under Your backups, you'll find your own backups and snapshots.

You can view and restore daily backups yourself, and create your own backups and snapshots, with an active ZapX Pass. The number of backups retained and the number of personal backups you can create depend on your Pass tier. Snapshots share slots with your personal backups.

How daily backups work

The first run reads the entire disk. After that, only changed data is transferred. The first run after restarting the VPS takes longer again.
Memory is not backed up.
Your VPS keeps running and remains accessible during the backup. Only at the beginning are the file systems briefly frozen, if the guest agent is running.
The backup doesn't use any of your purchased disk space or memory, and doesn't count toward your traffic.
Your VPS counts once toward the backup storage of your ZapX Pass, based on the space its data actually uses, not the purchased disk size. Learn more in Manage backups.

Turn off daily backups

With an active ZapX Pass, you can turn off daily backups for individual VPSs:

In Backups, open the Daily backup card.
Turn off the Daily backup switch.
Confirm the Turn off daily backup? dialog by clicking Turn off.

After that:

Your VPS will no longer be backed up daily. Without a backup, it can't be restored.
Existing daily backups are deleted immediately. This can't be undone.
You can turn daily backups back on at any time.
Daily backups are always on without an active ZapX Pass. If your Pass expires, daily backups are automatically turned back on.

Why starting, stopping, or reinstalling is temporarily locked

The daily backup is created overnight and then waits for an available slot on the backup server. As a result, it may not start for several hours, sometimes until later in the morning. While the backup is waiting or running, these actions are locked:

Start, stop, and restart
Reinstall
Restore a backup and reset a snapshot
Start or exit rescue mode

The panel will show the message “A snapshot or backup is running.” Your server itself continues to run normally. You can't cancel a backup that is waiting. Once it's finished, the actions will be available again. If you urgently need to perform a locked action, contact support.

Restore a backup

Under Backups, select Restore for the backup you want.
Confirm the Restore backup? dialog.

Here's what happens:

Your VPS is stopped.
The backup is restored to a new virtual machine. The operating system is not reinstalled.
The restored VPS is adjusted to match your current plan and IP addresses, then started.
Only after that is the previous state deleted.

The backup completely replaces the previous state. Any data you've changed since the backup was created will be lost. Back it up yourself beforehand if you need to keep it. If the restore fails before completion, your previous VPS will restart unchanged.

Keep a daily backup

Daily backups are automatically replaced by newer ones. If you want to keep a particular backup for longer, click Keep next to it. It then becomes a personal backup, uses a backup slot, is no longer replaced automatically, and appears under Your backups. The only way to undo this is to delete it there.

What's not possible

Cloning or duplicating: A backup or snapshot can only be restored to the same VPS, not to another one. To create a second server with the same content, order a new VPS and transfer the data yourself, for example with rsync or SFTP.
Downloading: VPS backups can't be downloaded.
Backups from the Classic panel: Backups from before the move to ZapX aren't shown here.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Yes, with a ZapX Pass that includes backups: in the Backups section, turn off the switch on the “Daily backup” card. Existing daily backups are deleted immediately. You can turn the backup back on at any time, even without a Pass. Without a ZapX Pass, it's always on. The backup doesn't use any of your purchased disk space or memory, and doesn't count toward your traffic.

The daily backup is probably waiting or running. Until it's finished, starting, stopping, restarting, reinstalling, and restoring are locked. Your server continues to run normally.

No. Backups and snapshots can only be restored to the same VPS. To create a second server with the same content, transfer the data yourself, for example with rsync or SFTP.

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VPS: Daily Backups, Restores, and Locked Actions

View backups

How daily backups work

Turn off daily backups

Why starting, stopping, or reinstalling is temporarily locked

Restore a backup

Keep a daily backup

What's not possible

Frequently asked questions

VPS

How daily backups work

Turn off daily backups

Why starting, stopping, or reinstalling is temporarily locked

Restore a backup

Keep a daily backup

What's not possible

Game Server

Servers & Hosting

ZAPX

Resources

ZAP-Hosting