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In this guide, you’ll learn how to back up and restore your Consul service state using snapshot commands. We’ll cover:
  • Creating a snapshot file
  • Inspecting snapshot metadata
  • Restoring a cluster from a snapshot
These steps are critical for disaster recovery and cluster portability.

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Prerequisites

  • A running Consul server (open source) cluster
  • Consul CLI installed and in your $PATH
  • Permissions to read/write snapshot files
Ensure you have sufficient disk space in your working directory before creating large snapshots.

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1. Taking a Snapshot

  1. SSH into one of your Consul server nodes.
  2. Change to a writable directory (e.g., /tmp): 
    cd /tmp
  3. Run the save subcommand to generate a snapshot file: 
    consul snapshot save consul.snap
  4. Confirm the operation: 
    ==> Consul snapshot saved: consul.snap
  5. Verify the file exists: 
    ls -lh
# -rw-r--r-- 1 consul consul  13K Jul  5 12:34 consul.snap

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2. Inspecting a Snapshot

To view metadata about an existing snapshot file, use the inspect subcommand: 
consul snapshot inspect consul.snap
Sample output: 
ID:            17-3678-1613078754824
Size:          13367
Index:         3678
Term:          17
Version:       1

Type                   Count     Size
----                   -----     ----
Register               14        9KB
License                1         1.2KB
KVS                    7         837B
...
Total                  —         13.1KB
  • The Version field refers to the snapshot format, not the Consul binary version.
  • Index and Term reflect the Raft state at snapshot creation.

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3. Restoring a Snapshot

When recovering a failed cluster or migrating state, restore from your snapshot: 
consul snapshot restore consul.snap
After the restore completes:
  1. Restart all Consul agents or services to load the restored data.
  2. Check cluster status: 
    consul operator raft list-peers
consul members
Do not restore a snapshot into an active cluster without first stopping agents—this can lead to data corruption.

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Snapshot Commands Reference

CommandDescriptionExample Usage
consul snapshot saveCreate a new snapshot fileconsul snapshot save backup.snap
consul snapshot inspectShow metadata for a snapshotconsul snapshot inspect backup.snap
consul snapshot restoreRestore state from a snapshot fileconsul snapshot restore backup.snap
By following these steps, you can efficiently manage Consul snapshots, ensuring reliable backups and quick recovery for your service cluster.

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