TransIP API: creating automatic VPS snapshots

In this guide, we will show you how to use the TransIP REST API via a PHP script and a cronjob to automatically create snapshots of a VPS at a fixed time.

For the steps in this guide, it is important that the API is enabled in your control panel.

Step 1

Open/create a PHP script in which you set up the automatic snapshots, for example:

nano ~/snapshot.php

Step 2

Give the script the content below. Click on 'Explanation' below the code for further explanation of this setup.

Note: The script only checks if there are snapshots with the name you specify behind 'SNAPSHOT_DESCRIPTION'. This prevents other snapshots with different descriptions from being deleted if you use two or more snapshots. If you use one snapshot before running this script and it has a different description than the value of 'SNAPSHOT_DESCRIPTION', delete it first before running this script.

<?php

require_once(__DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php');

use Transip\Api\Library\TransipAPI;
use Transip\Api\Library\Entity\Vps;
use Transip\Api\Library\Entity\Vps\Snapshot;

class vpsAutoSnapshot
{
    private const TRANSIP_LOGIN = 'youraccount';
    private const TRANSIP_PRIVATE_KEY = '';
    private const VPS_NAME = 'youraccount-vps';
    private const SNAPSHOT_DESCRIPTION = 'auto_snapshot';

    /**
     * @var TransipAPI
     */

    private $transipApi;

    public function __construct()
    {
            $this->transipApi = new TransipAPI(
                    self::TRANSIP_LOGIN,
                    self::TRANSIP_PRIVATE_KEY,
                    false
            );
    }

    public function run(): void
    {
        if ($this->vpsIsLocked(self::VPS_NAME)) {
            return; // vps is locked, don't continue
        }

        $snapshot = $this->getSnapshotByDescription(self::VPS_NAME, self::SNAPSHOT_DESCRIPTION);
        if ($snapshot !== null) {
            $this->transipApi->vpsSnapshots()->deleteSnapshot(self::VPS_NAME, $snapshot->getName());
        }

        $this->waitForVpsToUnlock();
        $this->transipApi->vpsSnapshots()->createSnapshot(self::VPS_NAME, self::SNAPSHOT_DESCRIPTION);
    }

    private function vpsIsLocked(string $vpsName): bool
    {
        $vps = $this->transipApi->vps()->getByName($vpsName);
        return ($vps->isCustomerLocked() || $vps->isLocked());
    }

    private function getSnapshotByDescription(string $vpsName, string $snapshotDescription): ?Snapshot
    {
        $snapshots = $this->transipApi->vpsSnapshots()->getByVpsName($vpsName);
        foreach ($snapshots as $snapshot) {
            if ($snapshot->getDescription() == $snapshotDescription) {
                return $snapshot;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    private function waitForVpsToUnlock(): void
    {
        $sleepCount = 0;
        while ($this->vpsIsLocked(self::VPS_NAME)) {
            if ($sleepCount > 10) {
                throw new \RuntimeException('Try out threshold reached, VPS has been locked for more than 2 minutes');
            }
            sleep(10);
            $sleepCount++;
        }
    }
}

(new vpsAutoSnapshot)->run();

Step 3

Open crontab with the command:

crontab -e

Step 4

Add the line below at the bottom of the crontab. Adjust the time to the desired moment when you want to create the snapshot (in this example, 1 AM every Sunday). For more information on setting up a cronjob, see this guide.

* 1 * * 0 ~/snapshot.php

Save the changes and close crontab (ctrl + x > y > enter, or :wq! depending on the editor you use).

That brings us to the end of this guide for automatically creating snapshots for VPSes.

If you have any questions based on this guide, do not hesitate to contact our support department. You can reach them via the ' Contact us' button at the bottom of this page.