IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.
Elastic Docs ›Elasticsearch Guide [7.14] ›Set up a cluster for high availability
« Resilience in larger clusters Back up a cluster’s data »

Back up a clusteredit

The only reliable and supported way to back up a cluster is by taking a snapshot. You cannot back up an Elasticsearch cluster by making copies of the data directories of its nodes. There are no supported methods to restore any data from a filesystem-level backup. If you try to restore a cluster from such a backup, it may fail with reports of corruption or missing files or other data inconsistencies, or it may appear to have succeeded having silently lost some of your data.

To have a complete backup for your cluster:

  1. Back up the data
  2. Back up the cluster configuration
  3. Back up the security configuration

To restore your cluster from a backup:

  1. Restore the data
  2. Restore the security configuration
« Resilience in larger clusters Back up a cluster’s data »