# Snapshot and compression

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-compression/77483>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 6, 2017, 11:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-compression/77483 "2017-03-06T11:00:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gphadke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@gphadke](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gphadke)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 11:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-compression/77483/1 "2017-03-06T11:00:07Z")

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Hello

I understand that the compress option of the snapshot repo works only on the meta data. Is there a way to compress the data files? I wanted to know if there is a way to configure the compression of data files during snapshot.

If not, we were thinking of compressing the repository (all contents) and archiving it to save disk space.  
It will great to know if anyone has implemented any alternate mechanism to save disk space.

regards  
Gopal

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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 6, 2017, 1:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-compression/77483/2 "2017-03-06T13:30:57Z")

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The data files are already compressed, so there may not be much to gain for trying to further compress them.

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**Author:** ![gphadke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@gphadke](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gphadke)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 7:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-compression/77483/3 "2017-03-07T07:08:13Z")

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Hey  
The documentation says this about the compress setting for snapshot

compress : Turns on compression of the snapshot files. Compression is applied only to metadata files (index mapping and settings). Data files are not compressed. Defaults to true.

Am I missing something? Please let me know.

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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 7, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-compression/77483/4 "2017-03-07T12:52:02Z")

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Data files are already compressed, so there is no point in trying to compress them further when creating a snapshot.

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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 4, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-compression/77483/5 "2017-04-04T12:52:07Z")

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