# Snapshot/Backup of cluster **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [March 24, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-backup-of-cluster/45371 "2016-03-24T16:49:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sipazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@sipazzo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sipazzo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-backup-of-cluster/45371/1 "2016-03-24T16:49:35Z")
I am setting up my 3 node cluster to create snapshots nightly. I know I have to make sure the snapshot location is available on all nodes and register the shared files system repo on each node but do I actually run the backup on each node or does one node discover and backup the primary shards off any node where they are located? Also, by default does it only backup primary shards or is there a way to configure this? I don't want the replica shards backed up. Thank you for any help. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-backup-of-cluster/45371/2 "2016-03-24T17:23:53Z")
> does one node discover and backup the primary shards off any node where they are located Yes, the master node coordinates the snapshot. It will instruct each node that has primary shard to write to the shared file system. Only primary shards will be used for snapshots. This is not configurable. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-backup-of-cluster/45371/3 "2017-07-05T23:05:25Z")