[[modules-snapshots]]
== Snapshot And Restore

The snapshot and restore module allows to create snapshots of individual indices or an entire cluster into a remote
repository. At the time of the initial release only shared file system repository is supported.

[float]
=== Repositories

Before any snapshot or restore operation can be performed a snapshot repository should be registered in
Elasticsearch. The following command registers a shared file system repository with the name `my_backup` that
will use location `/mount/backups/my_backup` to store snapshots.

[source,js]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup' -d '{
    "type": "fs",
    "settings": {
        "location": "/mount/backups/my_backup",
        "compress": true
    }
}'
-----------------------------------

Once repository is registered, its information can be obtained using the following command:

[source,js]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup?pretty'
-----------------------------------
[source,js]
-----------------------------------
{
  "my_backup" : {
    "type" : "fs",
    "settings" : {
      "compress" : "false",
      "location" : "/mount/backups/my_backup"
    }
  }
}
-----------------------------------

If a repository name is not specified, or `_all` is used as repository name Elasticsearch will return information about
all repositories currently registered in the cluster:

[source,js]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/_snapshot'
-----------------------------------

or

[source,js]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/_snapshot/_all'
-----------------------------------

[float]
===== Shared File System Repository

The shared file system repository (`"type": "fs"`) is using shared file system to store snapshot. The path
specified in the `location` parameter should point to the same location in the shared filesystem and be accessible
on all data and master nodes. The following settings are supported:

[horizontal]
`location`:: Location of the snapshots. Mandatory.
`compress`:: Turns on compression of the snapshot files. Defaults to `true`.
`concurrent_streams`:: Throttles the number of streams (per node) preforming snapshot operation. Defaults to `5`
`chunk_size`:: Big files can be broken down into chunks during snapshotting if needed. The chunk size can be specified in bytes or by
 using size value notation, i.e. 1g, 10m, 5k. Defaults to `null` (unlimited chunk size).


[float]
===== Read-only URL Repository

The URL repository (`"type": "url"`) can be used as an alternative read-only way to access data created by shared file
system repository  is using shared file system to store snapshot. The URL specified in the `url` parameter should
point to the root of the shared filesystem repository. The following settings are supported:

[horizontal]
`url`:: Location of the snapshots. Mandatory.
`concurrent_streams`:: Throttles the number of streams (per node) preforming snapshot operation. Defaults to `5`


[float]
=== Snapshot

A repository can contain multiple snapshots of the same cluster. Snapshot are identified by unique names within the
cluster. A snapshot with the name `snapshot_1` in the repository `my_backup` can be created by executing the following
command:

[source,js]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XPUT "localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup/snapshot_1?wait_for_completion=true"
-----------------------------------

The `wait_for_completion` parameter specifies whether or not the request should return immediately or wait for snapshot
completion. By default snapshot of all open and started indices in the cluster is created. This behavior can be changed
by specifying the list of indices in the body of the snapshot request.

[source,js]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XPUT "localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup/snapshot_1" -d '{
    "indices": "index_1,index_2",
    "ignore_unavailable": "true",
    "include_global_state": false
}'
-----------------------------------

The list of indices that should be included into the snapshot can be specified using the `indices` parameter that
supports <<search-multi-index-type,multi index syntax>>. The snapshot request also supports the
`ignore_unavailable` option. Setting it to `true` will cause indices that do not exists to be ignored during snapshot
creation. By default, when `ignore_unavailable` option is not set and an index is missing the snapshot request will fail.
By setting `include_global_state` to false it's possible to prevent the cluster global state to be stored as part of
the snapshot. By default, entire snapshot will fail if one or more indices participating in the snapshot don't have
all primary shards available. This behaviour can be changed by setting `partial` to `true`.

The index snapshot process is incremental. In the process of making the index snapshot Elasticsearch analyses
the list of the index files that are already stored in the repository and copies only files that were created or
changed since the last snapshot. That allows multiple snapshots to be preserved in the repository in a compact form.
Snapshotting process is executed in non-blocking fashion. All indexing and searching operation can continue to be
executed against the index that is being snapshotted. However, a snapshot represents the point-in-time view of the index
at the moment when snapshot was created, so no records that were added to the index after snapshot process had started
will be present in the snapshot.

Besides creating a copy of each index the snapshot process can also store global cluster metadata, which includes persistent
cluster settings and templates. The transient settings and registered snapshot repositories are not stored as part of
the snapshot.

Only one snapshot process can be executed in the cluster at any time. While snapshot of a particular shard is being
created this shard cannot be moved to another node, which can interfere with rebalancing process and allocation
filtering. Once snapshot of the shard is finished Elasticsearch will be able to move shard to another node according
to the current allocation filtering settings and rebalancing algorithm.

Once a snapshot is created information about this snapshot can be obtained using the following command:

[source,shell]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XGET "localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup/snapshot_1"
-----------------------------------

All snapshots currently stored in the repository can be listed using the following command:

[source,shell]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XGET "localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup/_all"
-----------------------------------

A snapshot can be deleted from the repository using the following command:

[source,shell]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XDELETE "localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup/snapshot_1"
-----------------------------------

When a snapshot is deleted from a repository, Elasticsearch deletes all files that are associated with the deleted
snapshot and not used by any other snapshots. If the deleted snapshot operation is executed while the snapshot is being
created the snapshotting process will be aborted and all files created as part of the snapshotting process will be
cleaned. Therefore, the delete snapshot operation can be used to cancel long running snapshot operations that were
started by mistake.


[float]
=== Restore

A snapshot can be restored using this following command:

[source,shell]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XPOST "localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup/snapshot_1/_restore"
-----------------------------------

By default, all indices in the snapshot as well as cluster state are restored. It's possible to select indices that
should be restored as well as prevent global cluster state from being restored by using `indices` and
`include_global_state` options in the restore request body. The list of indices supports
<<search-multi-index-type,multi index syntax>>. The `rename_pattern` and `rename_replacement` options can be also used to
rename index on restore using regular expression that supports referencing the original text as explained
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/regex/Matcher.html#appendReplacement(java.lang.StringBuffer,%20java.lang.String)[here].

[source,js]
-----------------------------------
$ curl -XPOST "localhost:9200/_snapshot/my_backup/snapshot_1/_restore" -d '{
    "indices": "index_1,index_2",
    "ignore_unavailable": "true",
    "include_global_state": false,
    "rename_pattern": "index_(.)+",
    "rename_replacement": "restored_index_$1"
}'
-----------------------------------

The restore operation can be performed on a functioning cluster. However, an existing index can be only restored if it's
closed. The restore operation automatically opens restored indices if they were closed and creates new indices if they
didn't exist in the cluster. If cluster state is restored, the restored templates that don't currently exist in the
cluster are added and existing templates with the same name are replaced by the restored templates. The restored
persistent settings are added to the existing persistent settings.
