Scheduled snapshots of your dialer

A Server snapshot is a point-in-time copy of the entire disk of your VICIfast server. When something goes wrong — a bad configuration change, an OS-level issue, or data corruption — you can roll the box back to a known-good state from a snapshot. VICIfast takes these snapshots on an automatic schedule on managed plans, so the restore point exists without anyone having to remember to create it.

What a snapshot covers

Because a server snapshot is a full-disk image taken at the hypervisor level, it captures everything on the box at the moment it is taken: the VICIdial database, all Call recording files, the Asterisk configuration, the VICIfast personalization layer, scripts, audio files, and the operating system itself. There is no need to think about which directories to include or to coordinate a separate database dump alongside a file backup. The entire disk state is captured as a single unit.

This matters most for a Managed hosting operator because the state that needs protecting is spread across many layers: the VICIdial MySQL database for leads, calls, and agent data; the Asterisk configuration built during Provisioning; and any customizations made through the dashboard since the server went live.

How the snapshot schedule works

flowchart TD
  A[Scheduled snapshot job runs] --> B[Platform calls Hetzner snapshot API]
  B --> C[Hetzner creates disk image of server]
  C --> D[Snapshot stored in Hetzner account]
  D --> E{Retention window exceeded?}
  E -->|Yes| F[Oldest snapshot deleted automatically]
  E -->|No| G[Snapshot retained]
  G --> H[Available for one-click restore from dashboard]

The VICIfast scheduler triggers a snapshot job at regular intervals. The job calls the Hetzner hypervisor API to create a disk image of your VPS, which Hetzner stores in your account. When the retention limit is reached, the oldest snapshot is removed to make room for the new one. You can see the list of available snapshots in your dashboard and restore from any of them with a single action. The schedule runs in the background, so you never have to remember to start a backup, and the rolling retention means you keep several recent recovery points instead of one stale image.

Managed plans only — not available on BYOI

Scheduled snapshots are a hypervisor-level feature. VICIfast can only automate them because we own and manage the Hetzner server on managed plans. On the BYOI (bring your own infrastructure) plan, where you bring your own server infrastructure (your own Hetzner box, an AWS EC2 instance, or on-prem hardware), VICIfast does not have hypervisor access and cannot create disk snapshots. BYOI customers who need point-in-time recovery can use the Platform Backup add-on, which provides logical backups of the VICIdial database and configuration files to object storage, but this is not the same as a full-disk image.

• Managed plans: full-disk snapshots on schedule, one-click restore from the dashboard.
• BYOI plan: logical backup (database + config dump) via Platform Backup add-on only.

Restoring from a snapshot

When you need to restore, you select the target snapshot from the server detail page in the dashboard and confirm the restore. The platform then triggers a restore operation through the Hetzner API. The server is rebuilt from the snapshot image, and once it is back online it resumes from the exact state at the time the snapshot was taken. Calls in progress at the time of the snapshot would not be preserved, but leads, recordings, campaigns, and configuration from that point forward are intact.

For a full view of the managed features included with each plan, see what VICIfast adds to VICIdial. If you are also thinking about the factory reset option, see factory-resetting your dialer safely. Plan and add-on details are on the pricing page.