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Consul snapshots provide an atomic, point-in-time backup of your cluster’s Raft state. They are the primary mechanism for disaster recovery (DR) and allow you to restore:
  • Key-value entries in the KV store
  • Service catalog definitions
  • Prepared queries
  • Active sessions
  • Access Control Lists (ACLs)
  • Internal metadata
Consistent snapshots ensure that all committed log entries across the Raft quorum are captured by the leader before the archive is created.
By default, snapshots run in consistent mode. The cluster leader coordinates the process to guarantee data integrity.
The image is an introduction to Consul snapshots, explaining that snapshots are taken in consistent mode by the leader, with options for followers to take snapshots using the -stale flag. It highlights the benefits and potential data loss risks of using the -stale flag.

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Taking a Snapshot on the Leader

Run the following command on the current leader to save a consistent snapshot: 
consul snapshot save /path/to/consul-snapshot.gz
This will:
  1. Verify leader status.
  2. Generate a gzipped tar archive at the specified path.

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Offloading to a Follower with -stale

If you need to reduce load on the leader—or capture state when quorum is lost—you can offload snapshot creation to a follower: 
consul snapshot save -stale /path/to/consul-snapshot.gz
Using -stale may omit unreplicated log entries from the follower, potentially resulting in data loss. Only use this option when leader performance or cluster availability is impacted.

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When to Use Stale Snapshots

  • Offload resource-intensive backup tasks from the leader
  • Capture cluster state after quorum loss, to restore in a new cluster

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Snapshot Contents

ComponentDescription
KV Store EntriesAll key-value data
Service CatalogRegistered services and metadata
Prepared QueriesUser-defined queries saved for repeatable lookups
Active SessionsLocks and leader election sessions
ACLsAccess Control policies and tokens
Internal MetadataRaft indexes, configuration, and other system details

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References

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