# Elasticsearch: Snapshot repository - index compression - "hard" archiving

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-snapshot-repository-index-compression-hard-archiving/261334>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** snapshot-and-restore\
**Created:** [January 16, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-snapshot-repository-index-compression-hard-archiving/261334 "2021-01-16T19:35:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rysiu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rysiu/32/61919_2.png) [@Rysiu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rysiu)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-snapshot-repository-index-compression-hard-archiving/261334/1 "2021-01-16T19:35:58Z")

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Hi!

Are the snapshots taken within elasticsearch repositories compressed in some fairly efficient way by default?

When you "permanently" secure (e.g. BD-ROM) a snapshot repository, is it worth compressing it to some archive (rar, zip, 7z, etc.)?

Does such compression make absolutely no sense and won't give any real size reduction?  
My guess is that it might be...

The extra compression is also a very large computational cost.

Is it worth it here to limit myself to a simple tar (tarball) with file splits of specific sizes?

Thanks for your help!

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**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-snapshot-repository-index-compression-hard-archiving/261334/2 "2021-01-16T21:37:56Z")

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> [@Rysiu](#):
>
> Are the snapshots taken within elasticsearch repositories compressed in some fairly efficient way by default?

Elasticsearch (via Lucene) compresses all the data it writes to disk, but snapshots are not compressed any further than regular indices. I've heard anecdotal reports that some additional savings are possible in some circumstances.

Be aware that compressed data can be much harder to recover if it suffers even a tiny amount of corruption, which is a big risk in long term archival. See e.g. this article:

[https://www.nongnu.org/lzip/xz\_inadequate.html](https://www.nongnu.org/lzip/xz_inadequate.html)

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 9:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-snapshot-repository-index-compression-hard-archiving/261334/3 "2021-02-13T21:38:20Z")

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