Answer
In general, SDSC recommends taking snapshots of instances in two cases:
Before significant changes are made to the instance in case the changes need to be rolled back.
After significant updates are made to the instance.
Examples of good times to snapshot the instance:
Before upgrading software on the instance.
After the operating system is upgraded.
Keep in mind instance snapshots consume storage space assigned to the SDSC Cloud project and are billed in On-demand SDSC Cloud projects. Snapshots may be deleted when they are no longer needed in the Volumes interface in the SDSC Cloud Dashboard.