# Restoring snapshot (filesystem) - empty **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** snapshot-and-restore\ **Created:** [January 9, 2025, 10:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/restoring-snapshot-filesystem-empty/372987 "2025-01-09T10:44:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![e-lastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cab0a1/32.png) [@e-lastic](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/e-lastic)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 10:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/restoring-snapshot-filesystem-empty/372987/1 "2025-01-09T10:44:48Z")
Hi, TL;DR; Tried to restore a snapshot I did before re-installing the machine but ended up with elasticsearch complaining the snapshot is "empty" What happened: I had to set up a machine from scratch (single instance ELK installation, no cluster running under Ubuntu). So I created a snapshot, tar-ed the resulting directory and put it in a safe place on another machine. After setting up the machine (OS, ELK 8.17.0) I wanted to restore the snapshot only to find out that elasticsearch. I "tar xpf"-ed the snapshot tar (~31GB) I created on the "old" installation (also Ubuntu), made sure it's owned by the elasticsearch-user: ```auto drwxr-xr-x 3 elasticsearch elasticsearch 4096 Nov 14 12:23 Zappy-snapshot-Repo ``` Next I added the path the directory is in to `/etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml`, i.e. ```auto path.repo: /tmp/Zappy-snapshot-Repo ``` Next I went to kibana and added the Repo. No errors here, but I got a message that the Repo has no snapshots: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/a/0/a04b656805c1680126bde478a428d2870708757c.png) Same in the developer console ```auto GET _snapshot/ ``` gives ```auto { "My-Test-Repo": { "type": "fs", "settings": { "location": "/tmp/Zappy-snapshot-Repo" } } } ``` but ```auto GET _snapshot/_status ``` gives ```auto { "snapshots": [] } ``` i.e. "empty" 🤔 No error messages whatsoever in /var/log/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.log Also tried with debuging, i.e. ```auto PUT _cluster/settings { "transient": { "logger.org.elasticsearch.snapshots": "DEBUG" } } ``` Still no useful information in elasticsearch.log. Any ideas what could be wrong, i.e. why I can't re-import the snapshot? ---
**Author:** ![leandrojmp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/leandrojmp/32/107231_2.png) [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/restoring-snapshot-filesystem-empty/372987/2 "2025-01-09T12:55:57Z")
What do you have inside of `/tmp/Zappy-snapshot-Repo`? Please run a `ls` on that path and share the results. ---
**Author:** ![e-lastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cab0a1/32.png) [@e-lastic](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/e-lastic)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/restoring-snapshot-filesystem-empty/372987/3 "2025-01-09T15:41:36Z")
Here we go: ```auto /tmp/Zappy-snapshot-Repo# ls -la total 204 drwxr-xr-x 3 elasticsearch elasticsearch 4096 Nov 14 12:23 . drwxrwxrwt 17 root root 4096 Jan 9 15:30 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 40680 Nov 14 12:23 index-0 -rw-r--r-- 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 8 Nov 14 12:23 index.latest drwxr-xr-x 149 elasticsearch elasticsearch 12288 Nov 14 12:14 indices -rw-r--r-- 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 135746 Nov 14 12:23 meta-6bs6VgeaQ7-StvlUpmov1g.dat -rw-r--r-- 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 3224 Nov 14 12:23 snap-6bs6VgeaQ7-StvlUpmov1g.dat /tmp/Zappy-snapshot-Repo# ``` so it's owned by "elasticsearch:elasticsearch" with the exact same permissions as the original (tar-ed via "tar cf" and extracted with "tar xpf") ---
**Author:** ![leandrojmp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/leandrojmp/32/107231_2.png) [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/restoring-snapshot-filesystem-empty/372987/4 "2025-01-09T15:58:00Z")
What happens when you click in _Verify Repository_ ? From the [documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/snapshots-register-repository.html#snapshots-repository-backup), it suggests that you need to Verify the repository before starting to use it. ---
**Author:** ![e-lastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cab0a1/32.png) [@e-lastic](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/e-lastic)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/restoring-snapshot-filesystem-empty/372987/5 "2025-01-11T19:27:00Z")
> [@leandrojmp](#): > > What happens when you click in _Verify Repository_ ? No complaints, just the message that the repo has no snapshots. In the meantime though thanks to a tip from one of my colleagues I could fix the problem: I originally put the directory containing the snapshot files to /tmp where elasticsearch didn't find them. As soon as I moved the files making up the repo away from /tmp to some other place in the filesystem elasticsearch was able to access them. Seems to have something to do with the way systemd treats /tmp. ---
**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 12, 2025, 9:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/restoring-snapshot-filesystem-empty/372987/6 "2025-01-12T09:25:44Z")
> [@e-lastic](#): > > Seems to have something to do with the way systemd treats /tmp. Yes, Elasticsearch sets the `PrivateTmp` option by default. You can adjust this if you really need to, but the simplest solution is to avoid putting non-temporary (or at least non-process-private) stuff like snapshots in `/tmp`.