Learn how to cleanup Snapshots with the Elasticsearch feature. Our Server Management Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

Elasticsearch Snapshot Cleanup Feature

In Elasticsearch, we can manage and remove old or unnecessary snapshots from the repository to free up storage space. This ensures efficient use of resources.

Snapshots in Elasticsearch are a way to back up and restore data, including indices, settings, and mappings. So, we can remove old snapshots to free up more space.

When we create snapshots, they are stored in a repository, which may be a shared filesystem, Amazon S3 bucket, HDFS, etc. Over time, as we keep creating new snapshots for data backup and versioning, it can lead to a large amount of data.

However, since snapshots are needed for long-term retention, we have to clean up the repository to avoid excessive storage usage.

The Snapshot cleanup process includes two main tasks:

• Delete Old Snapshots:

  Over time, older snapshots may become less relevant for restore operations. So, we can delete older snapshots that are no longer needed. Elasticsearch lets us delete specific snapshots by their name. Furthermore, we can set up rules to delete snapshots older than a certain age.
• Retain Certain Snapshots:

  While cleaning up old snapshots is necessary, it’s also crucial to retain snapshots that are still relevant for data recovery purposes. Some snapshots serve as reference points for point-in-time recovery or historical data analysis. As part of the cleanup process, we have to identify and retain essential snapshots while removing the rest.

How to cleanup Snapshots with Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch’s Snapshot Lifecycle Management (SLM) feature lets us define policies that automate the snapshot creation and cleanup process.

Here is a quick look at how it works:

1. First, we have to create a snapshot lifecycle policy. This will specify the rules for creating snapshots and defining retention periods. We can include settings for snapshot frequency, retention duration, etc in the policy.
2. Next, we have to attach the snapshot lifecycle policy to one or more repositories in Elasticsearch. The policy will then be applied to the snapshots created in those repositories.
3. Then, Elasticsearch will automatically create snapshots based on the defined policy. When snapshots reach the end of their retention period, the SLM feature will automatically remove them from the repository, freeing up storage space.

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Conclusion

In brief, our Support Experts demonstrated how to cleanup Snapshots with the Elasticsearch feature.