Say, I created a droplet and installed plenty of software to it. When I take a shapshot of it and delete a droplet, the next time I want to re-create the same kind of server with the same environment and software installed, will snapshot help me do that and withing a short period of time? Say, it took me hours to setup and install all that, will it take me about 10 seconds to re-create a server from scratch with the snapshot?
That's exactly how they work. A snapshot is a copy of your droplet's disk. The only difference between your original droplet and the droplet you create from it's snapshot should be it's assigned IP address.
Not for free. If you assign a Floating IP to your droplet you can keep that IP and then assign it to the new droplet when you create it. Floating IPs are free to use as long as they are assigned to a droplet but while it is being stored it will incur charges of $0.006/hr.
Ok. I've created a snapshot and turned off my droplet, what should I do next? Destroy the droplet? Should I download the snapshot first? Or will it be saved here even after I destroy my droplet?
Snapshots cannot be downloaded but remain stored on your account even after you destroy the droplet they were created from. They can then be managed from the Images section of the control panel.
