# Snapshot and restore API question
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-api-question/194363
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 8, 2019, 6:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-api-question/194363 "2019-08-08T06:51:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mmk1995](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mmk1995)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 6:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-api-question/194363/1 "2019-08-08T06:51:07Z")
Hi all,
Is there a best way to restore an index like restoring a relational database?
As I know, in Oracle, restoring a backup is overwriting the existing database and replace with the backup,
and the behavior of \_restore API cannot overwrite the index since it will warn "an open index with same name already exists in the cluster", so I have to define "rename\_pattern" and "rename\_replacement".
Is there a best way to restore an index like restoring a relational database?
Thanks in advance
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### Author:  [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-api-question/194363/2 "2019-08-08T08:26:45Z")
You can close or delete the index before restoring from a snapshot, or else you can restore to a new name and use an alias to redirect traffic to the new index.
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### Author:  [@mmk1995](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mmk1995)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 8:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-api-question/194363/3 "2019-08-08T08:34:18Z")
thanks for replying,
I would like to ask, what if I close the index and restore a snapshot using that index,
after that can I open the index again or the index is already replaced by the snapshot?
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### Author:  [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-api-question/194363/4 "2019-08-08T08:48:00Z")
Yes that's correct, the index is replaced.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-api-question/194363/5 "2019-09-05T08:48:02Z")
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