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How to Add Droplet Snapshots to Other Regions

Validated on 31 Oct 2019 • Last edited on 18 Dec 2024

Snapshots are on-demand disk images of DigitalOcean Droplets and volumes saved to your account. Use them to create new Droplets and volumes with the same contents.

By default, a Droplet snapshot is only available in the region where it was created. If you want to use a snapshot to create Droplets in other regions, you need to add the snapshot to those regions first. It doesn’t cost more to add a snapshot to more regions.

You cannot transfer volume snapshots to other regions. As an alternative, you can use you can use tools like SnapShooter, rsync or SFTP to transfer the data to a new volume created in the target region.

Add a Droplet Snapshot to Other Regions using Automation

How to Add an Image to a Region Using the DigitalOcean CLI

Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.
Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.
Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.
```
doctl auth init
```
Finally, run doctl compute image-action transfer. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:
```
doctl compute image-action transfer <image-id> [flags]
```
The following example transfers an image with the ID 386734086 to the region with the slug nyc3:
```
doctl compute image-action transfer 386734086 --region nyc3
```

How to Add an Image to a Region Using the DigitalOcean API

Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.
Send a POST request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/images/{image_id}/actions.

cURL

Using cURL:

# Transfer an Existing Image
curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"type":"transfer","region":"nyc2"}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/images/7938269/actions"

# Convert an Image into a Snapshot
curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"type":"convert"}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/images/7938291/actions"

Go

Using Godo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Go:

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    // Transfer an existing image
    transferRequest := &godo.ActionRequest{
        "type":   "transfer",
        "region": "nyc2",
    }
  # Transfer an Image
    transfer, _, err := client.ImageActions.Transfer(ctx, 7938269, transferRequest)

  # Convert an Image to a Snapshot
  # client.image_actions.convert(image_id: 7938269)

}

Ruby

Using DropletKit, the official DigitalOcean API client for Ruby:

require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

# Transfer an Image
client.image_actions.transfer(image_id: 7938269, region: 'nyc2')

# Convert an Image to a Snapshot
# client.image_actions.convert(image_id: 7938269)

Python

Using PyDo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Python:

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

req = {
  "type": "convert"
}
resp = client.image_actions.post(image_id=342341, body=req)

Add a Droplet Snapshot to Other Regions using the Control Panel

To add a Droplet snapshot to another region, click the source Droplet’s name. On the Droplet’s detail page, click Snapshots in the left menu. Open the snapshot’s More menu and click Add to region to open the Snapshot availability window.

Click each region you want to make the snapshot available in. A spinner displays as the snapshot image is added, which may take several minutes. When the snapshot becomes available in a region, the spinner stops and the region is no longer selectable.

Once the snapshot is added to the new region, you can use it to create new Droplets.