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Creating Snapshots in Elasticsearch

Introduction

Snapshots in Elasticsearch provide a way to backup your cluster's data. Snapshots can be stored in a repository, which can be a shared filesystem, Amazon S3, HDFS, Azure, or Google Cloud Storage. This tutorial will walk you through the process of creating snapshots in Elasticsearch from start to finish.

Step 1: Setting up the Snapshot Repository

Before creating snapshots, you need to set up a snapshot repository. This is where the snapshots will be stored. In this example, we will create a shared filesystem repository.

Example:

Create a directory on your shared filesystem that Elasticsearch can write to, for example:

mkdir /mnt/my_backup

Next, register the repository with Elasticsearch:

PUT _snapshot/my_backup_repository

{ "type": "fs", "settings": { "location": "/mnt/my_backup" } }

Step 2: Creating a Snapshot

Once the repository is set up, you can create a snapshot. You can take a snapshot of the entire cluster or specific indices.

To create a snapshot of the entire cluster, use the following command:

PUT _snapshot/my_backup_repository/snapshot_1?wait_for_completion=true

{ "accepted": true }

If you want to create a snapshot of specific indices, you can specify them as follows:

PUT _snapshot/my_backup_repository/snapshot_2?wait_for_completion=true

{ "indices": "index_1,index_2", "ignore_unavailable": true, "include_global_state": false }

Step 3: Verifying the Snapshot

To verify that the snapshot was created successfully, you can use the following command to get information about the snapshots in your repository:

GET _snapshot/my_backup_repository/_all

{ "snapshots": [ { "snapshot": "snapshot_1", "uuid": "some-uuid", "version_id": 7040199, "version": "7.4.1", "indices": [ "index_1", "index_2" ], "state": "SUCCESS", "start_time": "2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z", "end_time": "2020-01-01T00:01:00.000Z", "duration_in_millis": 60000 } ] }

Step 4: Restoring from a Snapshot

Restoring data from a snapshot is straightforward. You can restore the entire cluster or specific indices from a snapshot.

To restore the entire cluster from a snapshot, use the following command:

POST _snapshot/my_backup_repository/snapshot_1/_restore

{ "accepted": true }

To restore specific indices from a snapshot, use the following command:

POST _snapshot/my_backup_repository/snapshot_1/_restore

{ "indices": "index_1,index_2", "ignore_unavailable": true, "include_global_state": false }

Conclusion

Creating and managing snapshots in Elasticsearch is an essential part of maintaining the integrity and availability of your data. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can easily set up a snapshot repository, create snapshots, verify them, and restore data when needed. This ensures that your data is safely backed up and can be recovered in case of any issues.