ScyllaDB University LIVE, FREE Virtual Training Event | March 21
Register for Free
ScyllaDB Documentation Logo Documentation
  • Server
  • Cloud
  • Tools
    • ScyllaDB Manager
    • ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack
    • ScyllaDB Operator
  • Drivers
    • CQL Drivers
    • DynamoDB Drivers
  • Resources
    • ScyllaDB University
    • Community Forum
    • Tutorials
Download
ScyllaDB Docs ScyllaDB Open Source ScyllaDB for Administrators Procedures Backup and Restore Procedures Restore from a Backup and Incremental Backup

Caution

You're viewing documentation for a previous version. Switch to the latest stable version.

Restore from a Backup and Incremental Backup¶

Restoring a keyspace from a backup requires all snapshot files of the tables, and (if available) incremental backup files taken after the snapshot. Before restoring from backup, the table data must be truncated, making sure that the existing data does not overwrite the restored data.

Note

For cluster wide backup and restore, see ScyllaDB Manager.

Note

The following procedure assumes data is restored to the same cluster that was backed-up:

  • same number of nodes

  • same IPs

  • same token range per node

The procedure restores each node using the backup file of the same node. If this is not the case, one should use other restoration methods tools like sstableloader. This procedure is much slower than restoring to the same topology cluster.

Procedure¶

From one of the nodes, recreate the schema.

cqlsh -e "SOURCE '/path_to_schema/<schema_name.cql>'"

For example:

cqlsh -e "SOURCE 'centos/db_schema.cql'"

Repeat the following steps for each node in the cluster:¶

Note

If you are restoring encrypted backup files, make sure Scylla Enterprise has the same keys used by Scylla to encrypt the data before starting the restore process.

Note

Best practise is not to restore Materialized Views (MV) and Secondary Indexes (SI) SSTables. It is recommended to:

  • Drop the MV and SI using DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW or DROP INDEX

  • Restore the base table only (see below)

  • Recreate the MV or SI, using the original description from the CQL backup, using CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW or CREATE INDEX

  1. Run the nodetool drain command to ensure the data is flushed to the SSTables

  2. Shut down the node

    sudo systemctl stop scylla-server
    
    docker exec -it some-scylla supervisorctl stop scylla
    

    (without stopping some-scylla container)

  3. Delete all the files in the commitlog. Deleting the commitlog will prevent the newer insert from overriding the restored data.

    sudo rm -rf /var/lib/scylla/commitlog/*

  4. Delete all the files in the keyspace_name_table. Note that by default the snapshots are created under Scylla data directory /var/lib/scylla/data/keyspace_name/table_name-UUID/.

    Make sure NOT to delete the existing snapshots in the process.

    For example:

    sudo ll /var/lib/scylla/data/mykeyspace/team_players-6e856600017f11e790f4000000000000
    
    -rw-r--r-- 1 scylla   scylla     66 Mar  5 09:19 nba-team_players-ka-1-CompressionInfo.db
    -rw-r--r-- 1 scylla   scylla    669 Mar  5 09:19 nba-team_players-ka-1-Data.db
    -rw-r--r-- 4 scylla   scylla     10 Mar  5 08:46 nba-team_players-ka-1-Digest.sha1
    -rw-r--r-- 1 scylla   scylla     24 Mar  5 09:19 nba-team_players-ka-1-Filter.db
    -rw-r--r-- 1 scylla   scylla    218 Mar  5 09:19 nba-team_players-ka-1-Index.db
    -rw-r--r-- 1 scylla   scylla     38 Mar  5 09:19 nba-team_players-ka-1-Scylla.db
    -rw-r--r-- 1 scylla   scylla   4446 Mar  5 09:19 nba-team_players-ka-1-Statistics.db
    -rw-r--r-- 1 scylla   scylla     89 Mar  5 09:19 nba-team_players-ka-1-Summary.db
    -rw-r--r-- 4 scylla   scylla    101 Mar  5 08:46 nba-team_players-ka-1-TOC.txt
    drwx------ 5 scylla   scylla     69 Mar  6 08:14 snapshots
    drwx------ 2 scylla   scylla      6 Mar  5 08:40 upload
    
    sudo rm -f  /var/lib/scylla/data/mykeyspace/team_players-6e856600017f11e790f4000000000000/*
    
    rm: cannot remove ‘/var/lib/scylla/data/nba/team_roster-c019f8108fda11e8b16a000000000001/snapshots’: Is a directory
    rm: cannot remove ‘/var/lib/scylla/data/nba/team_roster-c019f8108fda11e8b16a000000000001/upload’: Is a directory
    
    sudo ll /var/lib/scylla/data/mykeyspace/team_players-6e856600017f11e790f4000000000000/
    
    drwx------ 5 scylla   scylla     69 Mar  6 08:14 snapshots
    drwx------ 2 scylla   scylla      6 Mar  5 08:40 upload
    
  5. Select the snapshot you want to restore (usually the most recent one)

    /var/lib/scylla/data/keyspace_name/table_name-UUID/snapshots/<snapshot_name>
    

    For example:

    cd /var/lib/scylla/data/mykeyspace/team_players-6e856600017f11e790f4000000000000/snapshots/1487847672222
    
  6. Copy the snapshots directory content to the /var/lib/scylla/data/keyspace_name/table_name-UUID/ directory

    For example:

    sudo cp -r * /var/lib/scylla/data/mykeyspace/team_players-6e856600017f11e790f4000000000000
    
  7. If you have incremental backup files, copy them from the backups folder /var/lib/scylla/data/keyspace_name/table_name-UUID/backups/<backups_name> to the /var/lib/scylla/data/keyspace_name/table_name-UUID/ directory

    For example:

    sudo cp -r * /var/lib/scylla/data/mykeyspace/team_players-6e856600017f11e790f4000000000000
    
  8. Make sure that all files are owned by the scylla user and group:

    sudo chown -R scylla:scylla /var/lib/scylla/data/mykeyspace/team_players-6e856600017f11e790f4000000000000
    
  9. Start the node

    sudo systemctl start scylla-server
    
    docker exec -it some-scylla supervisorctl start scylla
    

    (with some-scylla container already running)

  10. Run nodetool repair command to guarantee that your data is consistent with other nodes.

After performing the above on all nodes, repair the cluster with nodetool repair. This makes sure that the data is consistent on all nodes and between each node.

Was this page helpful?

PREVIOUS
Backup your Data
NEXT
Delete Backups
  • Create an issue
  • Edit this page

On this page

  • Restore from a Backup and Incremental Backup
    • Procedure
      • Repeat the following steps for each node in the cluster:
ScyllaDB Open Source
  • 5.2
    • master
    • 6.2
    • 6.1
    • 6.0
    • 5.4
    • 5.2
    • 5.1
  • Getting Started
    • Install ScyllaDB
      • ScyllaDB Web Installer for Linux
      • ScyllaDB Unified Installer (relocatable executable)
      • Air-gapped Server Installation
      • What is in each RPM
      • ScyllaDB Housekeeping and how to disable it
      • ScyllaDB Developer Mode
      • ScyllaDB Configuration Reference
    • Configure ScyllaDB
    • ScyllaDB Requirements
      • System Requirements
      • OS Support by Linux Distributions and Version
      • ScyllaDB in a Shared Environment
    • Migrate to ScyllaDB
      • Migration Process from Cassandra to Scylla
      • Scylla and Apache Cassandra Compatibility
      • Migration Tools Overview
    • Integration Solutions
      • Integrate Scylla with Spark
      • Integrate Scylla with KairosDB
      • Integrate Scylla with Presto
      • Integrate Scylla with Elasticsearch
      • Integrate Scylla with Kubernetes
      • Integrate Scylla with the JanusGraph Graph Data System
      • Integrate Scylla with DataDog
      • Integrate Scylla with Kafka
      • Integrate Scylla with IOTA Chronicle
      • Integrate Scylla with Spring
      • Shard-Aware Kafka Connector for Scylla
      • Install Scylla with Ansible
      • Integrate Scylla with Databricks
    • Tutorials
  • ScyllaDB for Administrators
    • Administration Guide
    • Procedures
      • Cluster Management
      • Backup & Restore
      • Change Configuration
      • Maintenance
      • Best Practices
      • Benchmarking Scylla
      • Migrate from Cassandra to Scylla
      • Disable Housekeeping
    • Security
      • ScyllaDB Security Checklist
      • Enable Authentication
      • Enable and Disable Authentication Without Downtime
      • Generate a cqlshrc File
      • Reset Authenticator Password
      • Enable Authorization
      • Grant Authorization CQL Reference
      • Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
      • ScyllaDB Auditing Guide
      • Encryption: Data in Transit Client to Node
      • Encryption: Data in Transit Node to Node
      • Generating a self-signed Certificate Chain Using openssl
      • Encryption at Rest
      • LDAP Authentication
      • LDAP Authorization (Role Management)
    • Admin Tools
      • Nodetool Reference
      • CQLSh
      • REST
      • Tracing
      • Scylla SStable
      • Scylla Types
      • SSTableLoader
      • cassandra-stress
      • SSTabledump
      • SSTable2json
      • Scylla Logs
      • Seastar Perftune
      • Virtual Tables
    • ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack
    • ScyllaDB Operator
    • ScyllaDB Manager
    • Upgrade Procedures
      • ScyllaDB Open Source Upgrade
      • ScyllaDB Open Source to ScyllaDB Enterprise Upgrade
      • ScyllaDB Image
      • ScyllaDB Enterprise
    • System Configuration
      • System Configuration Guide
      • scylla.yaml
      • ScyllaDB Snitches
    • Benchmarking ScyllaDB
  • ScyllaDB for Developers
    • Learn To Use ScyllaDB
      • Scylla University
      • Course catalog
      • Scylla Essentials
      • Basic Data Modeling
      • Advanced Data Modeling
      • MMS - Learn by Example
      • Care-Pet an IoT Use Case and Example
    • Scylla Alternator
    • Scylla Features
      • Scylla Open Source Features
      • Scylla Enterprise Features
    • Scylla Drivers
      • Scylla CQL Drivers
      • Scylla DynamoDB Drivers
    • Workload Attributes
  • CQL Reference
    • CQLSh: the CQL shell
    • Appendices
    • Compaction
    • Consistency Levels
    • Consistency Level Calculator
    • Data Definition
    • Data Manipulation
    • Data Types
    • Definitions
    • Global Secondary Indexes
    • Additional Information
    • Expiring Data with Time to Live (TTL)
    • Additional Information
    • Functions
    • JSON Support
    • Materialized Views
    • Non-Reserved CQL Keywords
    • Reserved CQL Keywords
    • ScyllaDB CQL Extensions
  • ScyllaDB Architecture
    • ScyllaDB Ring Architecture
    • ScyllaDB Fault Tolerance
    • Consistency Level Console Demo
    • ScyllaDB Anti-Entropy
      • Scylla Hinted Handoff
      • Scylla Read Repair
      • Scylla Repair
    • SSTable
      • ScyllaDB SSTable - 2.x
      • ScyllaDB SSTable - 3.x
    • Compaction Strategies
    • Raft Consensus Algorithm in ScyllaDB
  • Troubleshooting ScyllaDB
    • Errors and Support
      • Report a Scylla problem
      • Error Messages
      • Change Log Level
    • ScyllaDB Startup
      • Ownership Problems
      • Scylla will not Start
      • Scylla Python Script broken
    • Upgrade
      • Inaccessible configuration files after ScyllaDB upgrade
    • Cluster and Node
      • Failed Decommission Problem
      • Cluster Timeouts
      • Node Joined With No Data
      • SocketTimeoutException
      • NullPointerException
    • Data Modeling
      • Scylla Large Partitions Table
      • Scylla Large Rows and Cells Table
      • Large Partitions Hunting
    • Data Storage and SSTables
      • Space Utilization Increasing
      • Disk Space is not Reclaimed
      • SSTable Corruption Problem
      • Pointless Compactions
      • Limiting Compaction
    • CQL
      • Time Range Query Fails
      • COPY FROM Fails
      • CQL Connection Table
      • Reverse queries fail
    • ScyllaDB Monitor and Manager
      • Manager and Monitoring integration
      • Manager lists healthy nodes as down
  • Knowledge Base
    • Upgrading from experimental CDC
    • Compaction
    • Counting all rows in a table is slow
    • CQL Query Does Not Display Entire Result Set
    • When CQLSh query returns partial results with followed by “More”
    • Run Scylla and supporting services as a custom user:group
    • Decoding Stack Traces
    • Snapshots and Disk Utilization
    • DPDK mode
    • Debug your database with Flame Graphs
    • How to Change gc_grace_seconds for a Table
    • Gossip in Scylla
    • Increase Permission Cache to Avoid Non-paged Queries
    • How does Scylla LWT Differ from Apache Cassandra ?
    • Map CPUs to Scylla Shards
    • Scylla Memory Usage
    • NTP Configuration for Scylla
    • Updating the Mode in perftune.yaml After a ScyllaDB Upgrade
    • POSIX networking for Scylla
    • Scylla consistency quiz for administrators
    • Recreate RAID devices
    • How to Safely Increase the Replication Factor
    • Scylla and Spark integration
    • Increase Scylla resource limits over systemd
    • Scylla Seed Nodes
    • How to Set up a Swap Space
    • Scylla Snapshots
    • Scylla payload sent duplicated static columns
    • Stopping a local repair
    • System Limits
    • How to flush old tombstones from a table
    • Time to Live (TTL) and Compaction
    • Scylla Nodes are Unresponsive
    • Update a Primary Key
    • Using the perf utility with Scylla
    • Configure Scylla Networking with Multiple NIC/IP Combinations
  • ScyllaDB FAQ
  • Contribute to ScyllaDB
  • Glossary
  • Alternator: DynamoDB API in Scylla
    • Getting Started With ScyllaDB Alternator
    • ScyllaDB Alternator for DynamoDB users
Docs Tutorials University Contact Us About Us
© 2025, ScyllaDB. All rights reserved. | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | ScyllaDB, and ScyllaDB Cloud, are registered trademarks of ScyllaDB, Inc.
Last updated on 12 May 2025.
Powered by Sphinx 7.4.7 & ScyllaDB Theme 1.8.6