# Incremental snapshots - how do they they work

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/incremental-snapshots-how-do-they-they-work/79899>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 24, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/incremental-snapshots-how-do-they-they-work/79899 "2017-03-24T14:21:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bob\_Metelsky](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bob_metelsky/32/11387_2.png) [@Bob\_Metelsky](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bob_Metelsky)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/incremental-snapshots-how-do-they-they-work/79899/1 "2017-03-24T14:21:50Z")

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Ive googled around and see this is a common question but without a very clear answer.

My situation -

I need backups to run automatically  
I need to purge those output files on a rolling basis say by # of days or # of snapshots  
Each run of a snapshots will get a unique name  
I do not want to have full copies of all the data for each run

My best guess on how this could work being incremental

snapshotday1 create 10g  
snapshotday2 add 1g - now 11g  
snapshotday3 add 1g - now 12g  
snapshotday4 add 1g - now 13g

space on disk is only 13g

snapshotday4 is not dependent on 1-3, other than there may be older data I could want to restore from 1-3

Is this the way ES snapshot works?

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**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/incremental-snapshots-how-do-they-they-work/79899/2 "2017-03-24T14:50:26Z")

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[This blog post](https://www.elastic.co/blog/found-elasticsearch-snapshot-and-restore) describes how it works quite well, even though it is getting a bit old.

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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:** [April 21, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/incremental-snapshots-how-do-they-they-work/79899/3 "2017-04-21T14:50:33Z")

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