# \_snapshot data takes up disk space

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-data-takes-up-disk-space/216267>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 23, 2020, 2:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-data-takes-up-disk-space/216267 "2020-01-23T14:27:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![makarchuk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/makarchuk/32/46404_2.png) [@makarchuk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/makarchuk)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 2:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-data-takes-up-disk-space/216267/1 "2020-01-23T14:27:56Z")

</div>

Hello. We're observing strange behavior.

Elasticsearch appears to be storing some snapshot data directly in it's data directory. And there's quiet a lot of space occupied by this data

```
~> find /var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/ -name "_snapshot" |head -n 10
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/AdKyiLFoQHO_8GBTV8TrOA/15/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/A50S21ZJR3meXQOH9_QZaQ/4/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/sm4kdbzOSGe9TFDT1RkP2Q/2/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/7UsDXgVdQ7aQYuUNPSVGFg/10/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/Zq-xl4o1SeKmzHdm_ctPYA/1/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/evzgeSdYQMeVPYlDs7Zh-w/9/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/evzgeSdYQMeVPYlDs7Zh-w/29/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/HaKVrbd1QEudW9YPXOTPGw/1/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/Q2OB_y0MSmyskXqN1x_jvQ/7/_snapshot
/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/ufWMN6HvSZStyNu4hfyx2w/0/_snapshot

~> find /var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/ -name "_snapshot" -type d -exec du {} \; | awk '{ SUM += $1} END { print SUM }'               
253066032 #241 GB

```

This data are not included in `data_store` and we're running out of space because of it.  
I'm failing to find any information about it.

We're running self-hosted Elasticsearch 6.8, with free X-Pack license and no plugins.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![makarchuk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/makarchuk/32/46404_2.png) [@makarchuk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/makarchuk)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-data-takes-up-disk-space/216267/2 "2020-01-23T14:38:51Z")

</div>

This appears to be a reason [https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/50231](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/50231)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Armin\_Braun](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/armin_braun/32/20092_2.png) [@Armin\_Braun](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Armin_Braun)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-data-takes-up-disk-space/216267/3 "2020-01-23T16:24:32Z")

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@makarchuk

> [@makarchuk](#):
>
> This appears to be a reason [https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/50231](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/50231)

You're correct. Currently the best workaround I can suggest is to not use source only, but rather use normal snapshots and remove those directories manually.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/snapshot-data-takes-up-disk-space/216267/4 "2020-02-20T16:24:32Z")

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