How Can I Automate Droplet Snapshots with Terraform on DigitalOcean?

Hey there! 👋

Currently, DigitalOcean’s Terraform provider doesn’t natively support scheduling Droplet snapshots directly, but you can still set up snapshots using a few creative steps in combination with other tools!

Here are a few ways you can automate Droplet snapshots with Terraform:

1. While Terraform doesn’t schedule snapshots, you can create snapshots manually before applying any major configuration changes by using do_droplet_snapshot:

   https://registry.terraform.io/providers/digitalocean/digitalocean/latest/docs/resources/droplet_snapshot

   Here’s an example of how you could add this to your configuration:

   resource "digitalocean_droplet" "my_droplet" {
     name   = "example-droplet"
     size   = "s-1vcpu-1gb"
     image  = "ubuntu-20-04-x64"
     region = "nyc3"
   }
   
   resource "digitalocean_droplet_snapshot" "my_snapshot" {
     droplet_id = digitalocean_droplet.my_droplet.id
     name       = "pre-update-snapshot-${timestamp()}"
   }
   

   You’d trigger this manually by running terraform apply right before making any critical changes.

2. If you’re looking for more automation, you can create a shell script to trigger snapshots via the DigitalOcean API. Here’s a quick example of a cURL command for creating a snapshot:

   curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $DO_API_TOKEN" \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -d '{"type":"snapshot","name":"auto-snapshot-$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"}' \
   "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/droplets/DROPLET_ID/actions"
   

   You can run this script periodically using a cron job. Just replace DROPLET_ID with your droplet’s ID and set it up in your server’s cron scheduler.

3. DigitalOcean also offers SnapShooter integration for scheduled snapshots. SnapShooter automates backups and snapshots, and it’s a good choice if you want full automation without extra scripts or manual commands. Plus, SnapShooter keeps backups separate from Droplet automated backups for extra safety.

On the Terraform side again, since snapshots are best used before applying changes, run terraform plan to preview any adjustments. This way, you can be sure everything looks good and has a fresh snapshot in case of any rollback.

Hope this helps!

- Bobby