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Creates a new backup of the specified VM. This operation is asynchronous.

POST
/v1/projects/:projectId/vms/:vmId/backups

This endpoint takes no request body; the VM to back up is identified entirely by the route parameters.

Retention: each VM keeps at most a fixed number of backups (currently 7). When creating a new backup would exceed this cap, the oldest existing backup for the VM is deleted automatically first. The create request does not fail because of this — it simply takes slightly longer, since the old backup is deleted before the new one starts being created.

A 202 response only means the request was accepted, not that the backup exists yet. The CommandId returned in CommandAccepted is an internal identifier and is not queryable via any public endpoint. To observe completion, poll GET /v{version}/projects/{projectId}/vms/{vmId} and watch OperationStatus (it reports InProgress with Operation equal to CreateBackup while the backup is being created), or poll this backups list and watch for the new backup to appear — a list entry appears only after the backup completes successfully; if creation fails, no entry is ever created.

While a backup operation is in progress, the VM is locked: starting/stopping it, creating another backup, or performing other operations on the same VM fails with 409 Conflict until the operation completes.

Request​

Responses​

The backup creation request was accepted for asynchronous processing.