Add docs on repository reliability and backups (#68740)

This commit spells out how important repository reliability is to
searchable snapshots, and also documents a procedure for taking a backup
of a snapshot repository.

Relates #54944

docs/reference/searchable-snapshots/index.asciidoc

@@ -119,6 +119,22 @@ which identifies its original index snapshot. It does not contain any data from
 the original index. The restore of a backup will fail to restore any
 {search-snap} indices whose original index snapshot is unavailable.
 
+[discrete]
+[[searchable-snapshots-reliability]]
+=== Reliability of {search-snaps}
+
+The sole copy of the data in a {search-snap} index is the underlying snapshot,
+stored in the repository. If the repository fails or corrupts the contents of
+the snapshot then the data is lost. Although {es} may have made copies of the
+data onto local storage, these copies may be incomplete and cannot be used to
+recover any data after a repository failure. You must make sure that your
+repository is reliable and protects against corruption of your data while it is
+at rest in the repository.
+
+The blob storage offered by all major public cloud providers typically offers
+very good protection against data loss or corruption. If you manage your own
+repository storage then you are responsible for its reliability.
+
 [discrete]
 [[searchable-snapshots-shared-cache]]
 === Shared snapshot cache

docs/reference/snapshot-restore/register-repository.asciidoc

@@ -294,3 +294,27 @@ subsequently cleaned up.
 Please note that most of the cleanup operations executed by this endpoint are automatically executed when deleting any snapshot from a
 repository. If you regularly delete snapshots, you will in most cases not get any or only minor space savings from using this functionality
 and should lower your frequency of invoking it accordingly.
+
+[discrete]
+[[snapshots-repository-backup]]
+=== Repository backup
+
+You may wish to make an independent backup of your repository, for instance so
+that you have an archive copy of its contents that you can use to recreate the
+repository in its current state at a later date.
+
+You must ensure that {es} does not write to the repository while you are taking
+the backup of its contents. You can do this by unregistering it, or registering
+it with `readonly: true`, on all your clusters. If {es} writes any data to the
+repository during the backup then the contents of the backup may not be
+consistent and it may not be possible to recover any data from it in future.
+
+Alternatively, if your repository supports it, you may take an atomic snapshot
+of the underlying filesystem and then take a backup of this filesystem
+snapshot. It is very important that the filesystem snapshot is taken
+atomically.
+
+WARNING: You cannot use filesystem snapshots of individual nodes as a backup
+mechanism. You must use the {es} snapshot and restore feature to copy the
+cluster contents to a separate repository. Then, if desired, you can take a
+filesystem snapshot of this repository.