# 16 Indices that I have not created

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/16-indices-that-i-have-not-created/276905
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 24, 2021, 10:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/16-indices-that-i-have-not-created/276905 "2021-06-24T10:07:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Ashwin\_Patil1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ashwin_patil1/32/90642_2.png) [@Ashwin\_Patil1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ashwin_Patil1)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2021, 10:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/16-indices-that-i-have-not-created/276905/1 "2021-06-24T10:07:20Z")

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I have enabled monitoring and I see 16 indices, but I have not created any of them. Do I need them? How do I get rid of them?

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/8/1/819fa487d30e2a82048867b5a3cd3f05a159cea5.png)  
Below are the indices,

.apm-agent-configuration  
.apm-custom-link  
.fleet-policies-7  
.kibana-event-log-7.13.2-000001  
.kibana\_7.13.2\_001  
.kibana\_task\_manager\_7.13.2\_001  
.monitoring-es-7-2021.06.23  
.monitoring-es-7-2021.06.24  
.monitoring-kibana-7-2021.06.23  
.monitoring-kibana-7-2021.06.24  
.security-7  
.transform-internal-007  
metrics-endpoint.metadata\_current\_default

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### Author: ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2021, 10:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/16-indices-that-i-have-not-created/276905/2 "2021-06-24T10:30:01Z")

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Every index starting with a dot is known as a system index. You need to keep them around unless it causes you an issue.  
If you need to remove indices, you could remove the oldest ones, like `monitoring-es-7-2021.06.23`, `monitoring-kibana-7-2021.06.23`. But they will be removed automatically IIRC after some days anyway.

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### Author: ![Ashwin\_Patil1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ashwin_patil1/32/90642_2.png) [@Ashwin\_Patil1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ashwin_Patil1)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2021, 1:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/16-indices-that-i-have-not-created/276905/3 "2021-06-24T13:39:52Z")

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Thank you, David.

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### Author: ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2021, 1:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/16-indices-that-i-have-not-created/276905/4 "2021-07-22T13:40:10Z")

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