On a google compute engine (GCE), where are snapshots stored?

Question

I've made two snapshots using the GCE console. I can see them there on the console but cannot find them on my disks. Where are they stored? If something should corrupt one of my persistent disk, will the snapshots still be available? If they're not stored on the persistent disk, will I be charged extra for snapshot storage?

Answer 1

GCE has added a new level of abstraction. The disks were separated from the VM instance. This allows you to attach a disk to several instances or restore snapshots to another VMs.

In case your VM or disk become corrupt, the snapshots are safely stored elsewhere. As for additional costs - keep in mind that snapshots store only files that changed since the last snapshot. Therefore the space needed for 7 snapshots is often not more than 30% more space than one snapshot. You will be charged for the space they use, but the costs are quite low from what i observed (i was charged 0.09$ for 3.5 GB snapshot during one month).

Answer 2

The snapshots are stored separately on Google's servers, but are not attached to or part of your VM. You can create a new disk from an existing snapshot, but Google manages the internal storage and format of the snapshots.