# Handling repository snapshots

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-repository-snapshots/126343>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 1, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-repository-snapshots/126343 "2018-04-01T01:08:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ChaosMTA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chaosmta/32/23372_2.png) [@ChaosMTA](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ChaosMTA)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-repository-snapshots/126343/1 "2018-04-01T01:08:07Z")

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Hey,  
I'm wondering what the recommended way is to backup a repository of elasticsearch? I want to push a snapshot to B2 Storage. Would it be acceptable to tar the whole thing and upload it and then delete any snapshots I have in there to keep the backup size down? (Thus just having a record of snapshots in the backup)

I've been using elasticdump right now.

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Igor\_Motov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/igor_motov/32/45193_2.png) [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-repository-snapshots/126343/2 "2018-04-06T14:22:16Z")

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You need to treat entire repository as a whole, because many files are shared between different snapshots. If you want to move the repository somewhere else, you would need to move all files in this repository.

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**Author:** ![ChaosMTA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chaosmta/32/23372_2.png) [@ChaosMTA](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ChaosMTA)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 6:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-repository-snapshots/126343/3 "2018-04-20T06:13:44Z")

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Thanks Igor. Are snapshots full recreations or incremental from the previous snapshot?

Ideally I'd want to keep the storage size down on the server running ES. If the whole repository has to be backed up then what snapshots would be safe to delete overtime?

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**Author:** ![Igor\_Motov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/igor_motov/32/45193_2.png) [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 6:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-repository-snapshots/126343/4 "2018-04-22T06:41:34Z")

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> [@ChaosMTA](#):
>
> Are snapshots full recreations or incremental from the previous snapshot?

Both. We only copy files that changed since the last snapshot, but each snapshot refers to all files. See [docs](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.2/modules-snapshots.html) for more details.

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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:** [May 20, 2018, 6:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-repository-snapshots/126343/5 "2018-05-20T06:41:48Z")

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