# Creating user-initiated backups
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The following procedure describes how to create a user-initiated backup of a volume.

You cannot create a volume backup if the volume is offline. For more information, see [Viewing offline volumes](offline-volumes.md). 

**To create a user-initiated backup (console)**

1. Open the Amazon FSx console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/fsx/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/fsx/).

1. Navigate to **File systems** and choose the ONTAP file system that you want to back up a volume for.

1. Choose the **Volumes** tab.

1. Choose the volume you want to back up.

1. From **Actions**, choose **Create backup**.

1. In the **Create backup** dialog box that opens, provide a name for your backup. Backup names can be a maximum of 256 Unicode characters, including letters, white space, numbers, and the special characters . \$1 - = \$1 : /

1. Choose **Create backup**.

You have now created a backup of one of your file system's volumes. You can see all of your backups in the Amazon FSx console by choosing **Backups** in the left side navigation. You can search for the name you gave your backup, and the table filters to only show matching results.

When you create a user-initiated backup as this procedure described, it has the type `USER_INITIATED`, and it has the `CREATING` status until it is fully available.