---
title: Snapshots
weight: 110
aliases:
  - ../snapshots
---

# Snapshots

*Available as of v0.8.4*

Snapshots are `tar` archive files that contain data and configuration of a specific collection on a specific node at a specific time. In a distributed setup, when you have multiple nodes in your cluster, you must create snapshots for each node separately when dealing with a single collection.

This feature can be used to archive data or easily replicate an existing deployment. For disaster recovery, Qdrant Cloud users may prefer to use [Backups](/documentation/cloud/backups/) instead, which are physical disk-level copies of your data.

For a step-by-step guide on how to use snapshots, see our [tutorial](/documentation/tutorials/create-snapshot/).

## Store snapshots

The target directory used to store generated snapshots is controlled through the [configuration](../../guides/configuration/) or using the ENV variable: `QDRANT__STORAGE__SNAPSHOTS_PATH=./snapshots`.

You can set the snapshots storage directory from the [config.yaml](https://github.com/qdrant/qdrant/blob/master/config/config.yaml) file. If no value is given, default is `./snapshots`.

```yaml
storage:
  # Specify where you want to store snapshots.
  snapshots_path: ./snapshots
```

*Available as of v1.3.0*

While a snapshot is being created, temporary files are by default placed in the configured storage directory.
This location may have limited capacity or be on a slow network-attached disk. You may specify a separate location for temporary files:

```yaml
storage:
  # Where to store temporary files
  temp_path: /tmp
```

## Create snapshot

<aside role="status">If you work with a distributed deployment, you have to create snapshots for each node separately. A single snapshot will contain only the data stored on the node on which the snapshot was created.</aside>

To create a new snapshot for an existing collection:

```http
POST /collections/{collection_name}/snapshots
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(url="http://localhost:6333")

client.create_snapshot(collection_name="{collection_name}")
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.createSnapshot("{collection_name}");
```

```rust
use qdrant_client::client::QdrantClient;

let client = QdrantClient::from_url("http://localhost:6334").build()?;

client.create_snapshot("{collection_name}").await?;
```

```java
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
      new QdrantClient(QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost", 6334, false).build());

client.createSnapshotAsync("{collection_name}").get();
```

```csharp
using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient("localhost", 6334);

await client.CreateSnapshotAsync("{collection_name}");
```

This is a synchronous operation for which a `tar` archive file will be generated into the `snapshot_path`.

### Delete snapshot

*Available as of v1.0.0*

```http
DELETE /collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/{snapshot_name}
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(url="http://localhost:6333")

client.delete_snapshot(
    collection_name="{collection_name}", snapshot_name="{snapshot_name}"
)
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.deleteSnapshot("{collection_name}", "{snapshot_name}");
```

```rust
use qdrant_client::client::QdrantClient;

let client = QdrantClient::from_url("http://localhost:6334").build()?;

client.delete_snapshot("{collection_name}", "{snapshot_name}").await?;
```

```java
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
    new QdrantClient(QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost", 6334, false).build());

client.deleteSnapshotAsync("{collection_name}", "{snapshot_name}").get();
```

```csharp
using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient("localhost", 6334);

await client.DeleteSnapshotAsync(collectionName: "{collection_name}", snapshotName: "{snapshot_name}");
```

## List snapshot

List of snapshots for a collection:

```http
GET /collections/{collection_name}/snapshots
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(url="http://localhost:6333")

client.list_snapshots(collection_name="{collection_name}")
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.listSnapshots("{collection_name}");
```

```rust
use qdrant_client::client::QdrantClient;

let client = QdrantClient::from_url("http://localhost:6334").build()?;

client.list_snapshots("{collection_name}").await?;
```

```java
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
    new QdrantClient(QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost", 6334, false).build());

client.listSnapshotAsync("{collection_name}").get();
```

```csharp
using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient("localhost", 6334);

await client.ListSnapshotsAsync("{collection_name}");
```

## Retrieve snapshot

<aside role="status">Only available through the REST API for the time being.</aside>

To download a specified snapshot from a collection as a file:

```http
GET /collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/{snapshot_name}
```

```shell
curl 'http://{qdrant-url}:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/snapshot-2022-10-10.snapshot' \
    -H 'api-key: ********' \
    --output 'filename.snapshot'
```

## Restore snapshot

<aside role="status">Snapshots generated in one Qdrant cluster can only be restored to other Qdrant clusters that share the same minor version. For instance, a snapshot captured from a v1.4.1 cluster can only be restored to clusters running version v1.4.x, where x is equal to or greater than 1.</aside>

Snapshots can be restored in three possible ways:

1. [Recovering from a URL or local file](#recover-from-a-url-or-local-file) (useful for restoring a snapshot file that is on a remote server or already stored on the node)
3. [Recovering from an uploaded file](#recover-from-an-uploaded-file) (useful for migrating data to a new cluster)
3. [Recovering during start-up](#recover-during-start-up) (useful when running a self-hosted single-node Qdrant instance)

Regardless of the method used, Qdrant will extract the shard data from the snapshot and properly register shards in the cluster.
If there are other active replicas of the recovered shards in the cluster, Qdrant will replicate them to the newly recovered node by default to maintain data consistency.

### Recover from a URL or local file

*Available as of v0.11.3*

This method of recovery requires the snapshot file to be downloadable from a URL or exist as a local file on the node (like if you [created the snapshot](#create-snapshot) on this node previously). If instead you need to upload a snapshot file, see the next section.

To recover from a URL or local file use the [snapshot recovery endpoint](https://api.qdrant.tech/master/api-reference/snapshots/recover-from-snapshot). This endpoint accepts either a URL like `https://example.com` or a [file URI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_URI_scheme) like `file:///tmp/snapshot-2022-10-10.snapshot`. If the target collection does not exist, it will be created.

```http
PUT /collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/recover
{
  "location": "http://qdrant-node-1:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot"
}
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(url="http://qdrant-node-2:6333")

client.recover_snapshot(
    "{collection_name}",
    "http://qdrant-node-1:6333/collections/collection_name/snapshots/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot",
)
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.recoverSnapshot("{collection_name}", {
  location: "http://qdrant-node-1:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot",
});
```

<aside role="status">When recovering from a URL, the URL must be reachable by the Qdrant node that you are restoring. In Qdrant Cloud, restoring via URL is not supported since all outbound traffic is blocked for security purposes. You may still restore via file URI or via an uploaded file.</aside>

### Recover from an uploaded file

The snapshot file can also be uploaded as a file and restored using the [recover from uploaded snapshot](https://api.qdrant.tech/master/api-reference/snapshots/recover-from-uploaded-snapshot). This endpoint accepts the raw snapshot data in the request body. If the target collection does not exist, it will be created.

```bash
curl -X POST 'http://{qdrant-url}:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/upload?priority=snapshot' \
    -H 'api-key: ********' \
    -H 'Content-Type:multipart/form-data' \
    -F 'snapshot=@/path/to/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot'
```

This method is typically used to migrate data from one cluster to another, so we recommend setting the [priority](#snapshot-priority) to "snapshot" for that use-case.

### Recover during start-up

<aside role="alert">This method cannot be used in a multi-node deployment and cannot be used in Qdrant Cloud.</aside>

If you have a single-node deployment, you can recover any collection at start-up and it will be immediately available.
Restoring snapshots is done through the Qdrant CLI at start-up time via the `--snapshot` argument which accepts a list of pairs such as `<snapshot_file_path>:<target_collection_name>`

For example:

```bash
./qdrant --snapshot /snapshots/test-collection-archive.snapshot:test-collection --snapshot /snapshots/test-collection-archive.snapshot:test-copy-collection
```

The target collection **must** be absent otherwise the program will exit with an error.

If you wish instead to overwrite an existing collection, use the `--force_snapshot` flag with caution.

### Snapshot priority

When recovering a snapshot to a non-empty node, there may be conflicts between the snapshot data and the existing data. The "priority" setting controls how Qdrant handles these conflicts. The priority setting is important because different priorities can give very
different end results. The default priority may not be best for all situations.

The available snapshot recovery priorities are:

- `replica`: _(default)_ prefer existing data over the snapshot.
- `snapshot`: prefer snapshot data over existing data.
- `no_sync`: restore snapshot without any additional synchronization.

To recover a new collection from a snapshot, you need to set
the priority to `snapshot`. With `snapshot` priority, all data from the snapshot
will be recovered onto the cluster. With `replica` priority _(default)_, you'd
end up with an empty collection because the collection on the cluster did not
contain any points and that source was preferred.

`no_sync` is for specialized use cases and is not commonly used. It allows
managing shards and transferring shards between clusters manually without any
additional synchronization. Using it incorrectly will leave your cluster in a
broken state.

To recover from a URL, you specify an additional parameter in the request body:

```http
PUT /collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/recover
{
  "location": "http://qdrant-node-1:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot",
  "priority": "snapshot"
}
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient, models

client = QdrantClient(url="http://qdrant-node-2:6333")

client.recover_snapshot(
    "{collection_name}",
    "http://qdrant-node-1:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot",
    priority=models.SnapshotPriority.SNAPSHOT,
)
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.recoverSnapshot("{collection_name}", {
  location: "http://qdrant-node-1:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot",
  priority: "snapshot"
});
```

```bash
curl -X POST 'http://qdrant-node-1:6333/collections/{collection_name}/snapshots/upload?priority=snapshot' \
    -H 'api-key: ********' \
    -H 'Content-Type:multipart/form-data' \
    -F 'snapshot=@/path/to/snapshot-2022-10-10.shapshot'
```

## Snapshots for the whole storage

*Available as of v0.8.5*

Sometimes it might be handy to create snapshot not just for a single collection, but for the whole storage, including collection aliases.
Qdrant provides a dedicated API for that as well. It is similar to collection-level snapshots, but does not require `collection_name`.

<aside role="alert">Full storage snapshots are only suitable for single-node deployments. <a href="/documentation/guides/distributed_deployment/">Distributed</a> mode is not supported as it doesn't contain the necessary files for that.</aside>

<aside role="status">Full storage snapshots can be created and downloaded from Qdrant Cloud, but you cannot restore a Qdrant Cloud cluster from a whole storage snapshot since that requires use of the Qdrant CLI. You can use <a href="/documentation/cloud/backups/">Backups</a> instead.</aside>

### Create full storage snapshot

```http
POST /snapshots
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(url="http://localhost:6333")

client.create_full_snapshot()
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.createFullSnapshot();
```

```rust
use qdrant_client::client::QdrantClient;

let client = QdrantClient::from_url("http://localhost:6334").build()?;

client.create_full_snapshot().await?;
```

```java
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
    new QdrantClient(QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost", 6334, false).build());

client.createFullSnapshotAsync().get();
```

```csharp
using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient("localhost", 6334);

await client.CreateFullSnapshotAsync();
```

### Delete full storage snapshot

*Available as of v1.0.0*

```http
DELETE /snapshots/{snapshot_name}
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(url="http://localhost:6333")

client.delete_full_snapshot(snapshot_name="{snapshot_name}")
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.deleteFullSnapshot("{snapshot_name}");
```

```rust
use qdrant_client::client::QdrantClient;

let client = QdrantClient::from_url("http://localhost:6334").build()?;

client.delete_full_snapshot("{snapshot_name}").await?;
```

```java
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
    new QdrantClient(QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost", 6334, false).build());

client.deleteFullSnapshotAsync("{snapshot_name}").get();
```

```csharp
using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient("localhost", 6334);

await client.DeleteFullSnapshotAsync("{snapshot_name}");
```

### List full storage snapshots

```http
GET /snapshots
```

```python
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient("localhost", port=6333)

client.list_full_snapshots()
```

```typescript
import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ host: "localhost", port: 6333 });

client.listFullSnapshots();
```

```rust
use qdrant_client::client::QdrantClient;

let client = QdrantClient::from_url("http://localhost:6334").build()?;

client.list_full_snapshots().await?;
```

```java
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
    new QdrantClient(QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost", 6334, false).build());

client.listFullSnapshotAsync().get();
```

```csharp
using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient("localhost", 6334);

await client.ListFullSnapshotsAsync();
```

### Download full storage snapshot

<aside role="status">Only available through the REST API for the time being.</aside>

```http
GET /snapshots/{snapshot_name}
```

## Restore full storage snapshot

Restoring snapshots can only be done through the Qdrant CLI at startup time.

For example:

```bash
./qdrant --storage-snapshot /snapshots/full-snapshot-2022-07-18-11-20-51.snapshot
```
