# Snapshot always runs on primary shards?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-always-runs-on-primary-shards/112350>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 19, 2017, 4:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-always-runs-on-primary-shards/112350 "2017-12-19T04:55:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![akshaymaniyar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/akshaymaniyar/32/45836_2.png) [@akshaymaniyar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/akshaymaniyar)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 4:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-always-runs-on-primary-shards/112350/1 "2017-12-19T04:55:43Z")

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I wanted to know if the snapshots always run from the nodes holding the primary shards of the indices which are being snapshotted?

Why I want to know this?  
There is a setting of "max\_snapshot\_bytes\_per\_sec" which restricts the bandwidth utilisation per node. I have a restriction on the overall bandwidth being used by the entire cluster to be limited at 200MBPS. So I find out all the unique nodes which are holding the primary shards of all the indices being backed up and then set max\_snapshot\_bytes\_per\_sec as (200/NoOfNodes).

Wanted to know if this assumption is correct.

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**Author:** ![ywelsch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ywelsch/32/7751_2.png) [@ywelsch](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ywelsch)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 9:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-always-runs-on-primary-shards/112350/2 "2017-12-22T09:24:14Z")

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yes, we currently only snapshot primaries (see also [https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/18866](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/18866))

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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:** [January 19, 2018, 9:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-always-runs-on-primary-shards/112350/3 "2018-01-19T09:24:23Z")

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