# Snapshot and Restore process

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-process/95221>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 31, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-process/95221 "2017-07-31T17:30:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kabali12345](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@kabali12345](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kabali12345)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-process/95221/1 "2017-07-31T17:30:29Z")

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Hi all...

I understand from the documentation that the snapshot process takes a full backup for the first snapshot and there on goes with incremental backups. That being the case, I will have to retain my original snapshot and subsequent snaphots for ever and may not rotate the snapshots. Am I understanding this correctly? Is there a way I can force a full index or cluster backup for a given snapshot? Any ideas on how to work with snapshot rotation such that at any point in time, I have a full cluster backup? Any ideas are appreciated.

Thank You.

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**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 6:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-process/95221/2 "2017-07-31T18:01:05Z")

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> That being the case, I will have to retain my original snapshot and subsequent snaphots for ever and may not rotate the snapshots. Am I understanding this correctly?

No. You can remove any snapshot you want. Just think of a snapshot as a set of file pointers to segments.  
If your snap1 references segments A, B and C and snap 2 references segments A, B, and D (only D is copied when you run the snap2 snapshot), then when you remove snap1, only segment C is removed.

Which means you can restore snap2 safely as it has always needed files for it.

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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:** [August 28, 2017, 6:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-and-restore-process/95221/3 "2017-08-28T18:01:35Z")

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Closed on August 28, 2017, 6:01pm UTC

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