DescribeSnapshots

Description

Returns information about Amazon EBS snapshots available to you. Snapshots available to you include public snapshots available for any AWS account to launch, private snapshots you own, and private snapshots owned by another AWS account but for which you've been given explicit create volume permissions.

The create volume permissions fall into 3 categories:

Permission	Description
public	The owner of the snapshot granted create volume permissions for the snapshot to the `all` group. All AWS accounts have create volume permissions for these snapshots.
explicit	The owner of the snapshot granted create volume permissions to a specific AWS account.
implicit	An AWS account has implicit create volume permissions for all snapshots it owns.

The list of snapshots returned can be modified by specifying snapshot IDs, snapshot owners, or AWS accounts with create volume permissions. If no options are specified, Amazon EC2 returns all snapshots for which you have create volume permissions.

If you specify one or more snapshot IDs, only snapshots that have the specified IDs are returned. If you specify an invalid snapshot ID, an error is returned. If you specify a snapshot ID for which you do not have access, it will not be included in the returned results.

If you specify one or more snapshot owners, only snapshots from the specified owners and for which you have access are returned. The results can include the AWS account IDs of the specified owners, amazon for snapshots owned by Amazon, or self for snapshots that you own.

If you specify a list of restorable users, only snapshots with create snapshot permissions for those users are returned. You can specify AWS account IDs (if you own the snapshot(s)), self for snapshots for which you own or have explicit permissions, or all for public snapshots.

You can filter the results to return information only about snapshots that match criteria you specify. For example, you could get information about snapshots whose status is pending. You can specify multiple values for a filter (e.g., the snapshot's status is either pending or completed). A snapshot must match at least one of the specified values for it to be included in the results.

You can specify multiple filters (e.g., the snapshot's status is pending, and it is tagged with a particular value). The result includes information for a particular snapshot only if it matches all your filters. If there's no match, no special message is returned; the response is simply empty.

You can use wildcards with the filter values: * matches zero or more characters, and ? matches exactly one character. You can escape special characters using a backslash before the character. For example, a value of \*amazon\?\\ searches for the literal string *amazon?\.

The following table shows the available filters.

Filter Name	Description
`description`	Description of the snapshot. Type: String
`owner-alias`	The AWS account alias (e.g., `amazon`) that owns the snapshot. Type: String
`owner-id`	ID of the AWS account that owns the snapshot. Type: String
`progress`	The progress of the snapshot, in percentage (e.g., `80%`). Type: String
`snapshot-id`	Snapshot ID. Type: String
`start-time`	Time stamp when the snapshot was initiated. Type: xsd:dateTime
`status`	Status of the snapshot. Type: String Valid Values: `pending` \| `completed` \| `error`
`tag-key`	Key of a tag assigned to the resource. This filter is independent of the `tag-value` filter. For example, if you use both the filter `tag-key=Purpose` and the filter `tag-value=X`, you get any resources assigned both the tag key `Purpose` (regardless of what the tag's value is), and the tag value `X` (regardless of what the tag's key is). If you want to list only resources where Purpose=X, see the `tag:key` filter later in this table. For more information about tags, go to Using Tags in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide. Type: String
`tag-value`	Value of a tag assigned to the resource. This filter is independent of the `tag-key` filter. Type: String
`tag:``key`	Filters the results based on a specific tag/value combination. Example: To list just the resources assigned tag Purpose=X, then specify: `Filter.1.Name=tag:Purpose` `Filter.1.Value.1=X` Example: To list just resources assigned tag Purpose=X OR Purpose=Y, then specify: `Filter.1.Name=tag:Purpose` `Filter.1.Value.1=X` `Filter.1.Value.2=Y`
`volume-id`	ID of the volume the snapshot is for. Type: String
`volume-size`	The size of the volume, in GiB (e.g., `20`). Type: String

Request Parameters

Name	Description	Required
`SnapshotId.n`	One or more snapshot IDs. Type: String Default: Describes snapshots for which you have launch permissions.	No
`Owner.n`	Returns snapshots owned by the specified owner. Multiple owners can be specified. Type: String Valid Values: `self` \| `amazon` \| AWS Account ID Default: None	No
`RestorableBy.n`	One or more AWS accounts IDs that can create volumes from the snapshot. Type: String Default: None	No
`Filter.n.Name`	Name of a filter. See the preceding table for a list of allowed filter names. Type: String Default: None	No
`Filter.n.Value.m`	A value for the filter. See the preceding table for a list of allowed values for each filter. Type: String Default: None	No

Response Elements

The elements in the following table are wrapped in a DescribeSnapshotsResponse structure.

Name Description

Name	Description
`requestId`	The ID of the request. Type: xsd:string
`snapshotSet`	List of snapshots. Each snapshot's information is wrapped in an `item` element. Type: DescribeSnapshotsSetItemResponseType

requestId

The ID of the request.

Type: xsd:string

snapshotSet

List of snapshots. Each snapshot's information is wrapped in an item element.

Type: DescribeSnapshotsSetItemResponseType

Examples

Example Request

This example describes snapshot snap-78a54011.

https://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=DescribeSnapshots
&SnapshotId=snap-78a54011
&AUTHPARAMS

Example Response

<DescribeSnapshotsResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2011-01-01/">
   <requestId>59dbff89-35bd-4eac-99ed-be587EXAMPLE</requestId> 
   <snapshotSet>
      <item>
         <snapshotId>snap-78a54011</snapshotId>
         <volumeId>vol-4d826724</volumeId>
         <status>pending</status>
         <startTime>2008-05-07T12:51:50.000Z</startTime>
         <progress>80&#x0025;</progress>
         <ownerId>&exampleuid;</ownerId>
         <volumeSize>10</volumeSize>
         <description>Daily Backup</description>
         <tagSet/>
      </item>
   </snapshotSet>
</DescribeSnapshotsResponse>

Example Request

This example filters the results to display only snapshots with the pending status, and that are also tagged with a value that includes the string db_.

https://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=DescribeSnapshots
&Filter.1.Name=status
&Filter.1.Value.1=pending
&Filter.2.Name=tag-value
&Filter.2.Value.1=*db_*
&AUTHPARAMS

Example Response

<DescribeSnapshotsResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2011-01-01/">
   <requestId>59dbff89-35bd-4eac-99ed-be587EXAMPLE</requestId> 
   <snapshotSet>
      <item>
         <snapshotId>snap-1a2b3c4d</snapshotId>
         <volumeId>vol-8875daef</volumeId>
         <status>pending</status>
         <startTime>2010-07-29T04:12:01.000Z</startTime>
         <progress>30%</progress>
         <ownerId>&exampleuid;</ownerId>
         <volumeSize>15</volumeSize>
         <description>Daily Backup</description>
         <tagSet>
            <item>
               <key>Purpose</key>
               <value>demo_db_14_backup</value>
            </item>
         </tagSet>
      </item>
   </snapshotSet>
</DescribeSnapshotsResponse>

DescribeSnapshots

Description

Request Parameters

Response Elements

Examples

Example Request

Example Response

Example Request

Example Response

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