Manage instances

You manage instances from the Instances list (row action icons) or from the instance detail header. Every action returns a background operation and reports its result as a notification. State changes require the state-update permission on the instance; disabled buttons show a tooltip explaining the missing permission.

Change instance state

Shift-click a state button to skip the confirmation dialog.

Rename an instance

Renaming is done in the instance detail header: stop the instance, then click its name in the header and enter the new name. Renaming is only possible while the instance is Stopped, and the new name follows the same rules as at creation (1–63 characters, letters/digits/hyphens, starts with a letter, unique in the project).

Delete an instance

An instance can be deleted only when its status is Stopped or Error. Click Delete in the detail header and confirm. Deletion is permanent and can result in data loss. If the instance has Protect deletion enabled in its security policies, deletion is blocked until you disable it.

Copy an instance

Click Copy in the detail header to duplicate an instance:

• New instance name — defaults to <name>-copy.
• Target cluster member, Storage pool, and Target project — you can copy into any project where you may create instances.
• Ignore copy errors for volatile files — continue even if files that change during the copy cannot be copied consistently.
• Copy without instance snapshots — copy only the current state, not the snapshot history.

Export an instance to a backup file

Click Export in the detail header to create a backup and download it as a file. Options:

• Compression — Gzip (default) or none (faster, but larger).
• Expiration — how long the backup remains on the server for download: 1 hour to 7 days (default 6 hours).
• Use storage driver optimized format — on by default; an optimized backup can only be restored on a similar storage pool.
• Export without instance snapshots.

Custom (non-root) disk devices are not included in the export. Exporting requires the backup-management permission, and project policy can disable backups entirely.

To recreate an instance from a backup file, use Upload instance file on the create form — see Create an instance.

Migrate an instance

On deployments that span multiple servers, a Migrate button appears in the detail header. It offers three methods:

1. Migrate to a different cluster member — running VMs are live-migrated automatically.
2. Move root storage to a different pool.
3. Move to a different project.

Pick the target and confirm; progress and completion are reported as notifications.

Bulk actions

Select multiple instances in the list with the row checkboxes to run Start, Restart, Freeze, Stop (both with a force option), or Delete on all of them at once. The result notification summarizes the outcome; on partial failure it reports how many succeeded and offers a details view with the per-instance results.

Filter the instance list

The search box supports:

• Free text — matches instance names.
• key=value filters evaluated by the server, for example status=running, type=container, location=<member>, profiles=<profile>. Unrecognized keys match against instance configuration.
• ipv4= and ipv6= filters — exact addresses or CIDR subnets (for example ipv4=10.0.0.0/24), comma-separated for multiple values.

Use the column selector to show or hide columns; Memory and Root filesystem usage columns are hidden by default.

Related

• About instances
• Instance snapshots
• Troubleshoot instances