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The Power of Snapshots: Save and Restore Your VM State in KVM

19 December 2025bpd · ubuntu

Never Fear Breaking Your System Again

One of the most powerful features of virtualization, highlighted in the ‘Ubuntu System Administration Guide’, is the ability to take snapshots. A snapshot is a saved state of your virtual machine at a specific point in time, including all its files, memory, and settings.

Why Snapshots are a Game-Changer

Imagine you’re about to test a risky piece of software or make a major system configuration change. Instead of worrying about irreversible damage, you can simply take a snapshot. If something goes wrong, you can revert the entire VM back to that snapshot in seconds, as if the error never happened.

Creating a Custom Starting Point

You can also use snapshots to create custom templates. For example, you can perform a clean installation of Ubuntu, install all your favorite development tools and applications, and then take a snapshot. Now, whenever you need a fresh, pre-configured development environment, you can simply clone a new VM from that snapshot, saving you valuable setup time.

This post is based from content of the book Ubuntu System adminstration guide. And the book can be found here https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mattias-Hemmingsson/author/B0FF5CQX13