# Back up your Lightsail database with snapshots
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You can create a snapshot of your managed database in Amazon Lightsail. A snapshot is a copy of your database that you can use to restore it if something goes wrong. You can also use a snapshot to create a new database using a different plan, such as a high availability or standard plan.

When you create a snapshot of a standard database, the database becomes unavailable from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the size. High availability databases are not affected by snapshot operations because the snapshot is created using the standby database.

**To create a snapshot of your database**

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. In the left navigation pane, choose **Databases**.

1. Choose the name of the database for which you want to create a snapshot.

1. Choose the **Snapshots & restore** tab.

1. Under the **Manual snapshots** section of the page, choose **Create snapshot**, then enter a name for your snapshot.

   Resource names:
   + Must be unique within each AWS Region in your Lightsail account.
   + Must contain 2 to 255 characters.
   + Must start and end with an alphanumeric character or number.
   + Can include alphanumeric characters, numbers, periods, dashes, and underscores.

1. Choose **Create**.

   The snapshot creation process begins and a status of **Snapshot in progress** is shown.  
![\[Database snapshot in progress\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/images/amazon-lightsail-database-snapshot-in-progress.png)

   After the snapshot creation process is complete, the new snapshot is listed under the **Recent snapshots** section. You can also view all of the snapshots for your account in the Lightsail home page, under the **Snapshots** tab.  
![\[Recent database snapshots in the Lightsail console\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/images/amazon-lightsail-database-recent-snapshots.png)

## Next steps
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After your snapshot is ready, you can create a new database from the snapshot, which is a duplicate of the original database. For more information, see [Create a database from a snapshot](amazon-lightsail-creating-a-database-from-snapshot.md).

**Topics**
+ [Next steps](#creating-a-database-snapshot-next-steps)
+ [Restore database](amazon-lightsail-creating-a-database-from-point-in-time-backup.md)
+ [Create database from snapshot](amazon-lightsail-creating-a-database-from-snapshot.md)