Briefly, this error occurs when Elasticsearch is unable to access or read the snapshot file. This could be due to incorrect file permissions, a missing file, or a corrupted file. To resolve this issue, you can check the file permissions and ensure Elasticsearch has the necessary access. If the file is missing, restore it from a backup. If the file is corrupted, you may need to recreate the snapshot. Also, ensure that the path to the snapshot file in your Elasticsearch configuration is correct.
This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” cannot read snapshot file [{}] ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: blobstore, snapshot, repositories.
Overview
An Elasticsearch snapshot provides a backup mechanism that takes the current state and data in the cluster and saves it to a repository (read snapshot for more information). The backup process requires a repository to be created first. The repository needs to be registered using the _snapshot endpoint, and multiple repositories can be created per cluster. The following repository types are supported:
Repository types
| Repository type | Configuration type |
|---|---|
| Shared file system | Type: “fs” |
| S3 | Type : “s3” |
| HDFS | Type :“hdfs” |
| Azure | Type: “azure” |
| Google Cloud Storage | Type : “gcs” |
Examples
To register an “fs” repository:
PUT _snapshot/my_repo_01
{
"type": "fs",
"settings": {
"location": "/mnt/my_repo_dir"
}
}Notes and good things to know
- S3, HDFS, Azure and Google Cloud require a relevant plugin to be installed before it can be used for a snapshot.
- The setting, path.repo: /mnt/my_repo_dir needs to be added to elasticsearch.yml on all the nodes if you are planning to use the repo type of file system. Otherwise, it will fail.
- When using remote repositories, the network bandwidth and repository storage throughput should be high enough to complete the snapshot operations normally, otherwise you will end up with partial snapshots.
Log Context
Log “cannot read snapshot file [{}]” classname is BlobStoreRepository.java.
We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
snapshot = getSnapshotInfo(snapshotId);
} catch (SnapshotMissingException ex) {
listener.onFailure(ex);
return;
} catch (IllegalStateException | SnapshotException | ElasticsearchParseException ex) {
logger.warn(() -> new ParameterizedMessage("cannot read snapshot file [{}]"; snapshotId); ex);
}
// Delete snapshot from the index file; since it is the maintainer of truth of active snapshots
final RepositoryData updatedRepositoryData;
final Map foundIndices;
final Set rootBlobs;
