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google-cloud-platformsizeinstancesnapshotdisk

Google engine compute instance - size of instance disk vs snapshot

My Google compute engine instance disk size is dramatically different from my snapshot size created from this instance. My used disk space is under 40GB, while snapshot size is 123 GB. Below is illustration. My instance is Ubunt 16.04

Here is output of df command image_1

Here is size of snapshot created from this instance:

Image_2

I expect them to be of approximately the same size. Do you need clear trash bin before creating snapshot or do something else?

Solution

  • Google cloud snapshot size will change depending on the changes made to datas as only the first snapshot will be a full disk snapshot and then all the other will be differential.

    This mean that depending on the actions made on the disk you could have a snapshot containing only 1GB of change and the next one could be 200GB for the same 1TB disk.

    Google will maintain consistency between snapshot, you can find more information here: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/restore-and-delete-snapshots#deleting_snapshot