Snapshots are backups of a cluster's indexes and state. State includes cluster settings, node information, index metadata (mappings, settings, templates, etc.), and shard allocation.
Snapshots have two main uses:
- **Recovering from failure**
For example, if cluster health goes red, you might restore the red indexes from a snapshot.
- **Migrating from one cluster to another**
For example, if you're moving from a proof-of-concept to a production cluster, you might take a snapshot of the former and restore it on the latter.
You can take and restore snapshots using the [snapshot API]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/snapshots/snapshot-restore).
If you need to automate taking snapshots, you can use the [snapshot management]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/snapshots/snapshot-management) feature.
