vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Behind the scenes, the [Snapshot for VPC](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-about) service is used to create a point-in-time copy of your data. When the first backup snapshot is taken, the entire contents of the volume are copied and retained in IBM Cloud® Object Storage. Subsequent backups of the same volume capture the changes that occurred since the previous backup. You can take up to [750 backups of a volume](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-about&interface=uisnapshots_vpc_considerations).

You can [restore](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backup-service-about&interface=uibackup-service-restore-concepts) data from a backup snapshot to a new, fully provisioned volume. If the backup is of a boot volume, you can use it to provision a new instance. However, when you provision an instance by restoring a boot volume from a bootable backup snapshot, you can expect degraded performance in the beginning. During the restoration process, the data is copied from IBM Cloud® Object Storage to Block Storage for VPC, and thus the provisioned IOPS cannot be fully realized until that process finishes.

You can copy a backup snapshot from one region to another region, and later use that snapshot to restore a volume in the new region. The [cross-regional copy](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backup-service-about&interface=uibackup-service-crc) can be used in disaster recovery scenarios when you need to turn on your virtual server instance and data volumes in a different region. The remote copy can be created automatically as part of a backup plan, or manually later.

With the fast restore feature, you can cache snapshots in a specified zone of your choosing. This way, volumes can be restored from snapshots nearly immediately and the new volumes operate with full IOPS instantly. The fast restore feature can achieve a
Snapshots are stored and retrieved from IBM Cloud® Object Storage. Data is encrypted while in transit and stored in the same region as the original volume.

When you take a second snapshot, it captures only the changes that occurred since the last snapshot was taken. As such, the size of the snapshots can grow or shrink, depending on what is being uploaded to IBM Cloud® Object Storage. The number of snapshots increases with each successive snapshot that you take. You can take up to 750 snapshots per volume in your region. Within this limit, you can take and keep an hourly snapshot for 30 days, plus some extra snapshots. Deleting snapshots from this quota frees up space for more snapshots. A snapshot of a volume cannot be greater than 10 TB.

You can create a virtual server instance with a boot volume that was initialized from a snapshot. The instance profile of the new instance is not required to match the instance that was used to create the snapshot. You can also import a snapshot of a data volume when you create and attach a new data volume to the instance. You can specify user tags for these snapshots.

You can create a volume from a snapshot at any time. This process, called restoring a volume, can be performed when you create an instance, modify an instance, or when you create a stand-alone volume (no instance provisioning is required). For more information, see [Restoring a volume from a snapshot](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-about&interface=apisnapshots_vpc_restore_overview). You can also restore a fully provisioned volume by using the [fast restore feature](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-about&interface=apisnapshots-fast-restore) after initial provisioning.

Snapshots have a lifecycle that is independent from the source Block Storage for VPC volume. You can delete the original volume and the snapshot persists.
Snapshots are stored and retrieved from IBM Cloud® Object Storage. Data is encrypted while in transit and stored in the same region as the original volume.

When you take a second snapshot, it captures only the changes that occurred since the last snapshot was taken. As such, the size of the snapshots can grow or shrink, depending on what is being uploaded to IBM Cloud® Object Storage. The number of snapshots increases with each successive snapshot that you take. You can take up to 750 snapshots per volume in your region. Within this limit, you can take and keep an hourly snapshot for 30 days, plus some extra snapshots. Deleting snapshots from this quota frees up space for more snapshots. A snapshot of a volume cannot be greater than 10 TB.

You can create a virtual server instance with a boot volume that was initialized from a snapshot. The instance profile of the new instance is not required to match the instance that was used to create the snapshot. You can also import a snapshot of a data volume when you create and attach a new data volume to the instance. You can specify user tags for these snapshots.

You can create a volume from a snapshot at any time. This process, called restoring a volume, can be performed when you create an instance, modify an instance, or when you create a stand-alone volume (no instance provisioning is required). For more information, see [Restoring a volume from a snapshot](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-aboutsnapshots_vpc_restore_overview). You can also restore a fully provisioned volume by using the [fast restore feature](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-aboutsnapshots-fast-restore) after initial provisioning.

Snapshots have a lifecycle that is independent from the source Block Storage for VPC volume. You can delete the original volume and the snapshot persists. However, do not detach the volume from the instance during snapshot creation.
The Snapshot for VPC service is integrated with the IBM Cloud® Security and Compliance Center to help you manage security and compliance for your organization. For snapshots, you can set up a goal that checks whether snapshots are encrypted by using customer-managed keys. By using the Security and Compliance Center to validate the snapshot resource configurations in your account against a profile, you can identify potential issues as they arise.

Because snapshots are created from Block Storage for VPC volumes, Block Storage for VPC goals provide an extra level of security. For more information, see [Monitoring security and compliance posture with VPC](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-manage-security-compliancemonitor-vpc). For more information about creating security and compliance goals, see [Defining rules](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/security-compliance?topic=security-compliance-rules-define&interface=ui) in the Security and Compliance Documentation.





 Next steps 

You can [Restore a volume from a snapshot](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-restore).
Snapshots are stored and retrieved from IBM Cloud® Object Storage. Data is encrypted while in transit and stored in the same region as the original volume.

When you take a second snapshot, it captures only the changes that occurred since the last snapshot was taken. As such, the size of the snapshots can grow or shrink, depending on what is being uploaded to IBM Cloud® Object Storage. The number of snapshots increases with each successive snapshot that you take. You can take up to 750 snapshots per volume in your region. Within this limit, you can take and keep an hourly snapshot for 30 days, plus some extra snapshots. Deleting snapshots from this quota frees up space for more snapshots. A snapshot of a volume cannot be greater than 10 TB.

You can create a virtual server instance with a boot volume that was initialized from a snapshot. The instance profile of the new instance is not required to match the instance that was used to create the snapshot. You can also import a snapshot of a data volume when you create and attach a new data volume to the instance. You can specify user tags for these snapshots.

You can create a volume from a snapshot at any time. This process, called restoring a volume, can be performed when you create an instance, modify an instance, or when you create a stand-alone volume (no instance provisioning is required). For more information, see [Restoring a volume from a snapshot](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-about&interface=uisnapshots_vpc_restore_overview). You can also restore a fully provisioned volume by using the [fast restore feature](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-about&interface=uisnapshots-fast-restore) after initial provisioning.

Snapshots have a lifecycle that is independent from the source Block Storage for VPC volume. You can delete the original volume and the snapshot persists.
For more information, see [Configuring route propagation for VPN gateways](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-vpn-site-to-site-routes-propagating) and [VPN servers](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-vpn-client-to-site-route-propagation).

Concurrent update protection. ETags returned on GET, POST, and PATCH requests represent the modifiable state of the resource. When updating the accept_routes_from property on a [routing table](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestupdate-vpc-routing-table), or updating the client_authentication, client_dns_servers, or subnets properties on a [VPN server](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestupdate-vpn-server), you must provide the resource's ETag using the If-Match header. For general guidance on the use of ETags, see [Concurrent update protection](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestconcurrent-update-protection).







 28 June 2022 



 For all version dates 

Block storage. You can now create a volume from a snapshot without having to also create and attach it to a virtual server instance. When you [create a volume](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestcreate-volume), a new source_snapshot property lets you specify a snapshot which will be used as source data for the new volume. The volume's data is fully restored later, when you attach it to an instance. Volume performance is initially degraded until the volume data is fully restored. For more information, see [Restoring an unattached data volume from a snapshot with the API](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-restore&interface=apisnapshots-vpc-restore-unattached-api).
For more information, see [Restoring a volume by using fast restore](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-restore&interface=apisnapshots-vpc-use-fast-restore).

Extra security for VPC snapshots (closed beta)
: For customers with special access to this security beta feature, data isolation is provided to store snapshots created from your dedicated hosts. With data isolation extra security, your data is encrypted at rest with a unique key and access to your data is protected by a private firewall.





 3 February 2023 

Images for VPC UI Updates
: Previously, the path to custom images was VPC Infrastructure > Compute > Custom Images. The new path is VPC Infrastructure > Compute > Images. The new page is Images for VPC and now has a tab for each type of image:



* Custom images
* Stock images
* Catalog images









 January 2023 



 31 January 2023 

Secure boot with Trusted Plaform Module (TPM) (LA)
: Secure boot makes sure that your server starts with trusted software by verifying the signatures for all code in the boot process. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) provides hardware-based security functions. With supporting software, TPM helps maintain platform integrity and generates cryptographic keys. For more information, see [Secure boot with Trusted Platform Module (TPM)](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-secure-boot-tpm).





 30 January 2023 

IBM Hyper Protect Container Runtime image ibm-hyper-protect-container-runtime-1-0-s390x-8 updates
: For the IBM Hyper Protect Container Runtime image version ibm-hyper-protect-container-runtime-1-0-s390x-8, new certificates are available.



* [Attestation certificate](https://cloud.ibm.com/media/docs/downloads/hyper-protect-container-runtime/ibm-hyper-protect-container-runtime-1-0-s390x-8-attestation.crt)
Backup policies control which source volumes are selected for backup by matching user tags in the volume with tags that are defined in the backup policy. Policies can contain up to four backup plans, which specify how often backup snapshots are taken (daily, weekly, monthly, or by using a cron-spec) and retained (by date or by count). You can also view backup jobs, which show status of backup snapshots that are being created or deleted. This release also provides new functionality for restoring volumes from backup snapshots. For more information about this service, see [Backup for VPC](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backup-service-about) concepts.





 28 April 2022 

UI Updates
: The following UI updates were made:



* The custom image details information was moved from the side panel to a separate custom image details page.
* Previously, when you changed the region or zone while you provision a virtual server instance, you had to click either Save or Cancel to continue. This behavior was changed and you don't need to make that selection when you change the region or zone.
* You can now delete the virtual server instance without manually unbinding the floating IP address. When you delete the virtual server instance, the floating IP address is now automatically unbound before the virtual server instance is deleted. This UI change now matches how the virtual server instance is deleted when you use the CLI or API.







 11 April 2022 

2022-03-29 release of the VPC API introduced incompatible changes
: The 2022-03-29 release of the VPC API necessitated incompatible changes in support of the reserved IPs feature:



* IP addresses are now modeled as objects (resources), rather than strings.
* Security groups must now be associated with targets rather than network interfaces.



: Even if you are not planning to use reserved IPs, to avoid regressions in client functionality, be sure to reference [2022-03-29 API migration](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-2022-03-29-migration) and follow the Action needed recommendations before you specify version 2022-03-29 or later.
The first snapshot is a full backup of the volume. Subsequent snapshots of the same volume capture only the changes since the last snapshot. For more information, see [About Block Storage for VPC Snapshots for VPC](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-about).
* What is a backup snapshot?

 What is a backup snapshot? 

Backup snapshots, simply called "backups", are snapshots that are automatically created by the Backup for VPC service. For more information, see [About Backup for VPC](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backup-service-about).
* What can I do about data backups for disaster recovery?

 What can I do about data backups for disaster recovery? 

Block Storage for VPC secures your data across redundant fault zones in your region. By using the [backup service](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backup-service-about), you can regularly back up your volume data based on a schedule that you set up. You can create backup snapshots as frequently as 1 hour. However, the backup service does not provide continual backup with automatic failover, and restoring a volume from a backup or snapshot is a manual operation that takes time. If you require a higher level of service for automatic disaster recovery, see IBM's [Cloud disaster recovery solutions](https://www.ibm.com/cloud/disaster-recovery).
* What is restoring a volume from a snapshot?

 What is restoring a volume from a snapshot? 

Restoring from a snapshot creates a new, fully provisioned boot or data volume. You can restore storage volumes during instance creation, instance modification, or when you provision a new stand-alone volume. For data volumes, you can also use the volumes API to create a data volume from a snapshot.
Encryption Encryption information for the volume that you selected, either [provider-managed encryption](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-vpc-encryption-about&interface=uivpc-provider-managed-encryption) or [customer-managed encryption](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-vpc-encryption-about&interface=uivpc-customer-managed-encryption). The snapshot inherits the encryption of the source volume. You can't change the encryption type. 
 Optional configurations <br>New<br><br> Cross-region snapshot copy. Select Copy Snapshot to a different region. Click Create. 



3. Click Create block storage snapshot. You're returned to the screen that you started from. Messages are displayed while the snapshot is being created and when it's ready, the snapshot is displayed in the list of snapshots. For more information, see [View snapshot details in the UI](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-view&interface=uisnapshots-vpc-view-snapshot-ui).







 Enabling fast restore snapshot clones in the UI 



1. To enable the [fast restore feature](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-faqs&interface=uifaq-snapshot-fr), click the new snapshot to [view its details](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-snapshots-vpc-viewsnapshots-vpc-view-snapshot-ui).
2. Scroll to the Fast restore card and click Edit.
3. In the side panel, select the zones where you want to enable fast restore clones.
4. Click Save.







 Create cross-regional copy from the Snapshots for VPC list 

New
About Backup for VPC 

Use IBM Cloud® Backup for VPC to automatically create backups and restore Block Storage for VPC volumes from backup snapshots. By using this service, you can prevent data loss, manage risk, and improve data compliance. You can ensure that your data is backed up regularly, and you can retain the backups while you need them. You can create and manage backup policies and plans for your Block Storage for VPC volumes by using the UI, the CLI, the API, or Terraform.

Backups and snapshots services are different than a disaster recovery (DR) solution, where your data is continually backed up with automatic failover. Restoring a volume from a backup or a snapshot is a manual operation that takes time. If you require a higher level of service for disaster recovery, see IBM's [Cloud disaster recovery solutions](https://www.ibm.com/cloud/disaster-recovery).



 Backup service concepts 

You can create up to 10 backup policies for your Block Storage for VPC volumes in one region with the IBM Cloud Backup for VPC service. A backup policy contains one or more backup plans, which define a schedule for automated backups. You can create up to four plans per policy, and edit and delete them as needed. If you're undecided on the backup schedule or you don't know all the tags yet, you can create a backup policy without a plan and add one later.

Before you create backups, review the [planning your backups](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backups-vpc-planning) topic. For more information, see [best practices for creating backups](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backups-vpc-best-practices).

In a backup plan, you schedule the frequency of your backups. In the UI, you can choose daily, weekly, or monthly.
For more information, see [Upgrading weak cipher suites on a VPN gateway](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-upgrading-weak-ciphers).







 December 2022 



 20 December 2022 

Instance provision by volume (Beta)
: By default, when a virtual server instance is deleted attached boot volumes are deleted. You can disable this behavior, causing the boot volume to instead be detached when the virtual server instance is deleted. You can then attach the boot volume to a new virtual server instance. For more information, see [Creating virtual server instances](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-creating-virtual-servers&interface=ui), [Creating VPC resources with CLI and API](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-creating-vpc-resources-with-cli-and-api&interface=cli), and [Managing virtual server instances](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-managing-virtual-server-instances&interface=ui).

Backup for VPC
: The backup policy jobs feature, previously released as a Beta, is now generally available. You can now view all backup policy jobs or details of a single job from the UI, CLI, or API. A backup policy job is triggered when a scheduled backup snapshot is being created or deleted. If the create or delete action is successful, the job contains information about the backup snapshot that was created or deleted. If the job ran unsuccessfully, the job contains the reason for the failure. For more information, see [Viewing backup jobs](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-backup-view-policy-jobs).





 17 December 2022 

IBM Hyper Protect Container Runtime image ibm-hyper-protect-container-runtime-1-0-s390x-7 updates
: For the IBM Hyper Protect Container Runtime image version ibm-hyper-protect-container-runtime-1-0-s390x-7, new certificates are available.
You can now control the communication protocol and hop limit for IP response packets used by the [VPC Instance Metadata service](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-imd-about). When you [create](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestcreate-instance) or [update](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestupdate-instance) an instance, use the new metadata_service.protocol property to specify either http (default) or https (secure access) communication. In addition, use the new metadata_service.response_hop_limit property to specify a value between 1 (default) and 64. Both of these properties apply only when the metadata service is enabled by setting metadata_service.enabled to true. The default is false. For more information, see [Configure metadata settings on an existing instance with the API](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-imd-configure-service&interface=apimetadata-config-api).







 7 February 2023 



 For all version dates 

Snapshot clones for fast restore. You can now quickly restore a volume from a snapshot by using a fast restore snapshot clone. You can create a fast restore clone when you [create](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestcreate-snapshot) a new snapshot or [update](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestcreate-snapshot-clone) an existing snapshot by adding one or more zonal clones for a snapshot in the same region as the snapshot. Later, you can restore a volume, and all of its data, from that fast restore snapshot clone. When you no longer need a zonal snapshot clone, you can [delete](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/vpc/latestdelete-snapshot-clone) it. Although the delete operation cannot be reversed, you can create an new, equivalent zonal clone from the snapshot.