---
title:  Exporting Cache and Region Snapshots
---

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To save <%=vars.product_name%> cache or region data to a snapshot that you can later load into another distributed system or region, use the `cache.getSnapshotService.save` API, `region.getSnapshotService.save` API, or the `gfsh` command-line interface (`export data`).

If an error occurs during export, the export halts and the snapshot operation is canceled. Typical errors that halt an export include scenarios such as full disk, problems with file permissions, and network partitioning.

## <a id="concept_D1A4D9677F4146078F65C73BF436C19D__section_98B33450FD95450EAC027384EE82E00C" class="no-quick-link"></a>Exporting Cache Snapshots

When you export an entire cache, it exports all regions in the cache as individual snapshot files into a directory. If no directory is specified, the default is the current directory. A snapshot file is created for each region, and the export operation automatically names each snapshot filename using the following convention:

`snapshot-<region>[-<subregion>]*`

When the export operation writes the snapshot filename, it replaces each forward slash ('/') in the region path with a dash ('-').

**Using Java API:**

``` pre
File mySnapshotDir = ...
Cache cache = ...

cache.getSnapshotService().save(mySnapshotDir, SnapshotFormat.GEMFIRE);
```

Optionally, you can set a filter on the snapshot entries during the export. See [Filtering Entries During Import or Export](filtering_snapshot_entries.html) for an example.

## <a id="concept_D1A4D9677F4146078F65C73BF436C19D__section_30C1BBB41C194825A46E49E5756369D6" class="no-quick-link"></a>Exporting a Region Snapshot

You can also export a specific region using the following API or gfsh commands:

**Java API:**

``` pre
File mySnapshot = ...
Region<String, MyObject> region = ... 

region.getSnapshotService().save(mySnapshot, SnapshotFormat.GEMFIRE);
```

**gfsh:**

Open a gfsh prompt. After connecting to a <%=vars.product_name%> distributed system, at the prompt type:

``` pre
gfsh>export data --region=Region --file=FileName.gfd --member=MemberName
```

where *Region* corresponds to the name of the region that you want to export, *FileName* (must end in .gfd) corresponds to the name of the export file and *MemberName* corresponds to a member that hosts the region. For example:

``` pre
gfsh>export data --region=region1 --file=region1_2012_10_10.gfd --member=server1
```

The snapshot file will be written on the remote member at the location specified by the `--file` argument. For example, in the example command above, the `region1_2012_10_10.gfd` file will be written in the working directory of `server1`. For more information on this command, see [export data](../../tools_modules/gfsh/command-pages/export.html#topic_263B70069BFC4A7185F86B3272011734).

###<a id="export_example_with_options" class="no-quick-link"></a>Export Example with Options

These examples show how to include the `parallel` option for exporting partitioned regions. 
Note that the `parallel` option takes a directory rather than a file; see [export data](../../tools_modules/gfsh/command-pages/export.html#topic_263B70069BFC4A7185F86B3272011734) for details.

**Java API:**

``` pre
File mySnapshotDir = ...
Region<String, MyObject> region = ... 

SnapshotOptions<Integer, MyObject> options = 
 region.getSnapshotServive.createOptions().setParallelMode(true);
region.getSnapshotService().save(mySnapshotDir, SnapshotFormat.GEMFIRE, options);
```

**gfsh:**

The Java API example, above, accomplishes the same purpose as the following gfsh command:

``` pre
gfsh>export data --parallel --region=region1 --dir=region1_2012_10_10 --member=server1
```

