Copy an incremental snapshot to a new region

You can use the Azure CLI to copy an incremental snapshot. You need the latest version of the Azure CLI. See the following articles to learn how to either install or update the Azure CLI.

The following script copies an incremental snapshot from one region to another:

subscriptionId=<yourSubscriptionID>
resourceGroupName=<yourResourceGroupName>
targetSnapshotName=<name>
sourceSnapshotName=<name>
targetRegion=<validRegion>

sourceSnapshotId=$(az snapshot show -n $sourceSnapshotName -g $resourceGroupName --query [id] -o tsv)

az snapshot create -g $resourceGroupName -n $targetSnapshotName -l $targetRegion --source $sourceSnapshotId --incremental --copy-start

Check copy status

You can check the status of an individual snapshot by checking the CompletionPercent property. Replace $sourceSnapshotName with the name of your snapshot then run the following command. The value of the property must be 100 before you can use the snapshot for restoring disk or generate a SAS URI for downloading the underlying data.

az snapshot show -n $sourceSnapshotName -g $resourceGroupName --query [completionPercent] -o tsv

You can use the Azure PowerShell module to copy an incremental snapshot. You'll need the latest version of the Azure PowerShell module. The following command will either install it or update your existing installation to latest:

Install-Module -Name Az -AllowClobber -Scope CurrentUser

Once that is installed, sign in to your PowerShell session with Connect-AzAccount.

The following script will copy an incremental snapshot from one region to another.

$subscriptionId="yourSubscriptionIdHere"
$resourceGroupName="yourResourceGroupNameHere"
$sourceSnapshotName="yourSourceSnapshotNameHere"
$targetSnapshotName="yourTargetSnapshotNameHere"
$targetRegion="desiredRegion"

Set-AzContext -Subscription $subscriptionId

$sourceSnapshot=Get-AzSnapshot -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -SnapshotName $sourceSnapshotName

$snapshotconfig = New-AzSnapshotConfig -Location $targetRegion -CreateOption CopyStart -Incremental -SourceResourceId $sourceSnapshot.Id

New-AzSnapshot -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -SnapshotName $targetSnapshotName -Snapshot $snapshotconfig

Check copy status

You can check the CompletionPercent property of an individual snapshot to get its status. Replace yourResourceGroupNameHere and yourSnapshotName then run the script. The value of the property must be 100 before you can use the snapshot for restoring disk or generate a SAS URI for downloading the underlying data.

$resourceGroupName = "yourResourceGroupNameHere"
$snapshotName = "yourSnapshotName"

$targetSnapshot=Get-AzSnapshot -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -SnapshotName $snapshotName

$targetSnapshot.CompletionPercent

You can also copy an incremental snapshot across regions in the Azure portal.

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and navigate to the incremental snapshot you'd like to migrate.

2. Select Copy snapshot.

   

3. For Snapshot type under Instance details select Incremental.

4. Change the Region to the region you'd like to copy the snapshot to.

   

5. Select Review + Create and then Create.

You can also use Azure Resource Manager templates to copy an incremental snapshot. You must use version 2020-12-01 or newer of the Azure Compute REST API. The following snippet is an example of how to copy an incremental snapshot across regions with Resource Manager templates:

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "parameters": {
        "name": {
            "defaultValue": "isnapshot1",
            "type": "String"
        },
        "sourceSnapshotResourceId": {
            "defaultValue": "<your_incremental_snapshot_resource_ID>",
            "type": "String"
        },
        "skuName": {
            "defaultValue": "Standard_LRS",
            "type": "String"
        },
        "targetRegion": {
            "defaultValue": "desired_region",
            "type": "String"
        }
    },
    "variables": {},
    "resources": [
        {
            "type": "Microsoft.Compute/snapshots",
            "sku": {
                "name": "[parameters('skuName')]",
                "tier": "Standard"
            },
            "name": "[parameters('name')]",
            "apiVersion": "2020-12-01",
            "location": "[parameters('targetRegion')]",
            "scale": null,
            "properties": {
                "creationData": {
                    "createOption": "CopyStart",
                    "sourceResourceId": "[parameters('sourceSnapshotResourceId')]"
                },
                "incremental": true
            },
            "dependsOn": []
        }
    ]
}