[[high-availability]]
= Set up a cluster for high availability

[partintro]
--
As with any software that stores data,
it is important to routinely back up your data.
{es}'s <<glossary-replica-shard,replica shards>> provide high availability
during runtime;
they enable you to tolerate sporadic node loss
without an interruption of service.

However, replica shards do not protect an {es} cluster
from catastrophic failure.
You need a backup of your cluster—
a copy in case something goes wrong.


{es} offers two features to support high availability for a cluster:

* <<backup-cluster,Snapshot and restore>>,
which you can use to back up individual indices or entire clusters.
You can automatically store these backups in a repository on a shared filesystem.

* <<xpack-ccr,Cross-cluster replication (CCR)>>,
which you can use to copy indices in remote clusters to a local cluster.
You can use {ccr} to recover from the failure of a primary cluster
or serve data locally based on geo-proximity.
--

include::high-availability/backup-cluster.asciidoc[]

include::ccr/index.asciidoc[]