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This page explains how to choose, view, and change the option for a project's default backup setting. This page might also help you choose which backup setting you want to select when creating an instance.
When you create a Compute Engine instance in the Google Cloud console, you can specify the method that you want to use to back up your data. The default backup setting is a project-wide Compute Engine setting that specifies which method is preselected by default when you create an instance in the Google Cloud console. For example, you can configure the default backup setting to help encourage a project to use your preferred method for automatically backing up data.
Before you beginTo learn about the options that you can use to back up data, see Data protection options. Specifically, this page discusses options for automatically scheduled backups, especially backup plans for backup vaults and snapshot schedules.
Some of the backup options incur additional costs when you create an instance. For more information, see the pricing for each option in Understand and choose the default backup setting in this document.
Required rolesTo get the permissions that you need to choose, view, and change the default backup setting, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on your project:
roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
)roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin
)For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.
These predefined roles contain the permissions required to choose, view, and change the default backup setting. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:
Required permissionsThe following permissions are required to choose, view, and change the default backup setting:
compute.projects.setCommonInstanceMetadata
compute.projects.get
serviceusage.services.enable
serviceusage.services.get
You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.
Important: Unless you configure your project to use the no backups option by default, you need to also make sure each user that you want to be able to create instances has sufficient permissions to back up instances. For example, make sure each user has the Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
) role. For more information, see the requirements listed for each option in Understand and choose the default backup setting in this document. Understand and choose the default backup setting
The default backup setting for a project determines which backup method, if any, is automatically selected when you use the Create an instance page in the Google Cloud console. Specifically, the default backup setting determines the backup method that is automatically selected in Back up your data section in the Data protection pane.
For reference, the Back up your data section lets you select which backup method, if any, to use for your data as follows:
Optionally, you can select a different option than the automatic selection.
Regardless of the default backup setting, if a backup method is selected, Compute Engine automatically selects a specific backup plan or a specific snapshot schedule to use. Optionally, you can select a different backup plan or different snapshot schedule before you finish creating the instance.
Note: For more information about which backup plan or snapshot schedule is automatically selected, see Options for the default backup setting. Limitations for the default backup settingThe default backup setting has the following scope:
The setting affects only the Create an instance page in the Google Cloud console.
The setting doesn't affect existing instances.
Note: If you want to change how data is automatically backed up for existing instances, you can learn how to configure backup plans for existing instances and configure scheduled snapshots for existing disks instead.This setting specifies only the type of backup option that's selected by default. It's not possible to customize the specific backup plan or specific snapshot schedule that is selected by default. To use a specific backup plan or snapshot schedule that isn't selected by default, select a different option while you're creating the instance.
The options that you can use for the default backup setting are explained in the following table. Specifically, you can directly choose backup plan, snapshot schedule, or no backups, but until you choose a default backup setting, your project uses a predefined behavior.
Options for the default backup settingPredefined
(No option is selected)
Use case: All projects use this behavior until you change the default backup setting for your project or restore this behavior.
Effect: Compute Engine automatically selects a default backup behavior that the project has enabled by using the following logic:
Requirements: See the requirements for the backup plan and snapshot schedule options respectively.
Pricing: See the pricing for the backup plan and snapshot schedule options respectively.
Use case: We recommend this option for most projects. Review the use cases for the other options to see if your project is an exception.
Caution: If your project automatically applies a backup plan to new instances by using tags, we recommend you use the no backups option. Otherwise, when instances use the default backup plan, the tag-based backup plan won't be applied to prevent redundancy.Effect: When you're creating a new instance, backup plans are selected by default to back up data. Specifically, the backup plan that is automatically selected is the default backup plan for the region that contains the instance. When you create an instance, Compute Engine automatically creates a default backup plan and default backup vault for the region as needed and if they don't already exist.
default-compute-instance-plan-REGION
. Replace REGION
with the region that contains the instance; for example, us-central1
.default-vault-REGION
. Replace REGION
with the region that contains the instance; for example, us-central1
.Requirements:
To use this option, the project must have the Backup and DR API enabled.
Pricing: Backup plans and vaults incur additional costs. For more information, see Backup and DR pricing.
Use case: We recommend this option only if any of the following are true for your project:
Effect: When you're creating a new instance, snapshot schedules are selected by default to back up data. Specifically, the snapshot schedule that is selected by default varies. If the project already has compatible snapshot schedules, the automatic selection is the snapshot schedule that comes first in alphabetical order. Alternatively, if no compatible snapshot schedule exists, the automatic selection is a default snapshot schedule for the region that contains the instance. Compute Engine automatically creates the default snapshot schedule when needed.
default-schedule-1
for each region.Requirements:
Pricing: Snapshot schedules incur additional costs. For more information, see Compute Engine disk snapshot pricing.
Use case: Use this option only when one or more of the following are true for your project:
Effect: When you're creating a new instance, data is not automatically backed up by default.
Warning: If you don't back up or replicate your data and your data is deleted or corrupted for any reason, then you won't be able to recover that data.Requirements: This option doesn't have any requirements.
Pricing: This option doesn't incur additional costs.
To view the default backup setting for a project, do the following:
If you haven't already, open the project that you want to view settings for in the Google Cloud console.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Settings page for Compute Engine.
The Default data protection section displays the option that your project uses for the default backup setting. If none of the radio buttons are selected, then your project uses the predefined behavior.
To change the default backup setting for a project, do the following in the Google Cloud console:
Review the options for the default backup setting and decide which option you want to use. For the selected option, ensure that it matches your use case and that you meet the requirements.
If you haven't already, open the project that you want to change settings for in the Google Cloud console.
Based on the option that you want to choose for the default backup setting, do one of the following:
If you want to choose the backup plan, snapshot schedule, or no backups option, then complete the following steps:
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Settings page for Compute Engine.
For Default data protection, choose the new option.
Click Save.
If you want to revert to the predefined behavior that Compute Engine had automatically selected for the project, complete the steps to remove project metadata for the google-compute-default-data-protection
metadata entry.
If you want to set or update the default backup setting for all projects in an organization at once, then you can't use the Google Cloud console. Instead, you can use gcloud CLI to update the setting in the project metadata and automate this update across all projects in the organization. To perform this automation, follow these steps:
Review the options for the default backup setting and decide which option you want to use. For the selected option, ensure that it matches your use case and that you meet the requirements.
Create a script to automate running the gcloud compute project-info add-metadata
command for all projects in the organization. Specify the --metadata google-compute-default-data-protection
flag with the value of the option that you want to change the default backup setting to. Consider the following examples:
To set or update the default backup setting across all projects in the organization to No backups, use the following command in your script:
gcloud compute project-info add-metadata \ --project=PROJECT_NAME \ --metadata=google-compute-default-data-protection=NONE
To set or update the default backup setting across all projects in the organization to Backup plan, use the following command in your script:
gcloud compute project-info add-metadata \ --project=PROJECT_NAME \ --metadata=google-compute-default-data-protection=BACKUP
To set or update the default backup setting across all projects in the organization to Snapshot schedule, use the following command in your script:
gcloud compute project-info add-metadata \ --project=PROJECT_NAME \ --metadata=google-compute-default-data-protection=SNAPSHOT_SCHEDULES
Replace PROJECT_NAME
with the name of the project.
To learn more about setting and updating your project's metadata, see Set and remove custom metadata.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-08-07 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-07 UTC."],[[["This document details how to manage the default backup settings for Google Cloud Compute Engine projects, which determines the pre-selected backup method when creating new instances."],["The default backup setting can be configured to use a backup plan, a snapshot schedule, or no backups, each with specific use cases, requirements, and pricing considerations."],["Users can change the default backup setting to a specific option (backup plan, snapshot schedule, or no backups) or revert to a predefined behavior where the system chooses based on enabled features."],["Changing the default setting only applies to new instances created via the Google Cloud console and does not affect existing instances, nor does it prevent users from choosing a different backup option when creating a new instance."],["To modify, view, and select the default backup setting you will require the Compute Instance Admin (v1) role, and if using backup plans you will also require the Service Usage Admin role."]]],[]]
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