Snapshot management

As explained in Architecting an Apache Iceberg Lakehouse

Snapshot lifecycle management governs the creation, retention, expiration, and removal of versioned table states.

Snapshot management treats each Apache Iceberg snapshot as an immutable recovery checkpoint, balancing rollback readiness against storage retention, expiration, and operational cost. section 11.3.5 section 11.4

A production lifecycle typically includes:

• Tag snapshots after successful ingestion or data-quality validation so recovery workflows can identify trusted restore points. section 11.3.5
• Configure expiration and orphan-file cleanup according to workload patterns, retention requirements, and secure-deletion needs. section 11.4
• Automate rollback and recovery testing while preserving catalog metadata and validating replicated metadata and data files. section 11.3.5 section 11.4

Figure 11.5 You can automate the gathering of snapshot metrics when a new snapshot arrives to evaluate whether it is a sound restore point based on your own criteria, so automated processes can revert to an ideal point if something goes wrong.

Automated snapshot metrics can evaluate whether a newly created snapshot meets recovery criteria and identify an appropriate rollback point. section 11.3.5

How Architecting an Apache Iceberg Lakehouse covers it

How deep it goes

Explains tagging, expiration, cleanup, rollback, and recovery testing but stops short of tool-specific procedures or configuration syntax.

Examples

Uses tagged post-ingestion snapshots, data-quality checkpoints, automated snapshot metrics, and replicated metadata or data files.

What you can do after

Operate/configure snapshot workflows that identify restore points, enforce retention, clean orphan files, and support tested rollback.

How it connects

Connects snapshots with disaster recovery, rollback, catalog metadata, orphan file cleanup, compaction, governance, and replication.

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Related concepts

• _slm APIuses · The _slm API is Elasticsearch's interface for creating, managing, and executing snapshot lifecycle policies.
• snapshotuses · A snapshot is a fixed representation or copy of data or system state as it existed at a particular point in time.
• snapshot taggingconfigures · Snapshot tagging is the assignment of persistent labels to selected table snapshots so that important historical states can be identified and protected.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Architecting an Apache Iceberg Lakehouse. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.