How to export a snapshot of VM before deleting my GCP account?

I was developing a Proof of Concept with GCP, I am done for now and I need to delete my account. But before I need to make a copy of VM as we are planning to move into production. I made a snapshot of VM, how can I export it to my local server/machine?

Solution 1:

First of all, you can’t download a snapshot from your VM instance due to snapshots are incremental backups from your persistent disks. But you can download a custom image from your VM instance.

These are the steps I used:

• Create the image

1. Stop your instance
2. In the Google Cloud Console, go to the Create an image page.
3. Fill the blanks (I left all the default values for my test)
4. Click Create to create the image.

• Export your image

1. In the Google Cloud Console, go to the Images page.
2. Click the name of the image that you want to export to go to the image details page.
3. From the image details page, click Export

4. Select the image format needed.

5. Choose the Cloud Storage location to export your image or create a new one in the menu that appears at the right.

6. Click Export to conclude the process.

• Download the image

1. In the Google Cloud Console, go to the Cloud Storage Browser

2. Click the name of the Bucket where you stored your image

3. And to download the Image to your local server/machine click on the Download button.