# How do you backup up a subset of system indices? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [September 16, 2025, 8:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-you-backup-up-a-subset-of-system-indices/381995 "2025-09-16T20:58:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![garethhumphriesgkc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@garethhumphriesgkc](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/garethhumphriesgkc)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 8:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-you-backup-up-a-subset-of-system-indices/381995/1 "2025-09-16T20:58:24Z")
Per [(elastic/elasticsearch#134769)](https://apc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Felastic%2Felasticsearch%2Fissues%2F134769%23issuecomment-3296405573&data=05%7C02%7Cgareth.humphries%40gkc.co%7C0c62035e9d3147b4382c08ddf4f6f9b5%7C4b2290fe8c134f57baa626b9ab76f40f%7C0%7C0%7C638936063789980126%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7g3Tj2pRV92kLyrhuMDjJqT%2BYjsGpQAcF0grrMtkyLs%3D&reserved=0) There are bunch of old indices lying around I’d like clear out - for example `.reporting-2023-07-23` and `.kibana_7.15.1_001`. Having looked at the aliases I’m pretty sure these are unused, but of course it’s hard to be certain. Being a responsible admin I’d therefore like to snapshot them before deleting them, but the only way to snapshot/restore these indices is via the featureset, which is all or nothing. So if in two days time I decide I want them back, I have to roll everything “kibana” back to a backup of two days ago. There must be a better way. How do other people backup legacy system indices before deleting them? I ended up just using elasticdump and copying the raw records out as JSON to a local filesystem - at least now I have a copy - but the restore process from this untested and guaranteed to be painful.