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google-cloud-platformgoogle-compute-enginegoogle-persistent-disk

Are Google Compute Engine (GCE) persistent disk (PD) snapshots crash-consistent?


When I take a persistent disk snapshot, what are the consistency guarantees for this snapshot? I know it is not guaranteed to be "application consistent", but is it "crash consistent"? Or are there no consistency guarantees?

-- EDIT --

For comparison, Machine Images are guaranteed to be crash-consistent as is. However, the docs are silent on this issues with persistent disk snapshots.


Solution

  • TL;DR: PD disk snapshots are crash consistent.

    From the Compute Engine Persistent documentation:

    When you take a snapshot of a persistent disk, you don't need to take any additional steps to make your snapshot crash consistent. In particular, you do not need to pause your workload.