# Audit log time based deletion policy not working

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/audit-log-time-based-deletion-policy-not-working/321022>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 12, 2022, 11:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/audit-log-time-based-deletion-policy-not-working/321022 "2022-12-12T11:28:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![irivas95](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@irivas95](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/irivas95)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 11:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/audit-log-time-based-deletion-policy-not-working/321022/1 "2022-12-12T11:28:22Z")

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Hi,

I have the following policy for deleting audit logs older than 7 days in my log4j2.properties config file:

```auto
appender.audit_rolling.type = RollingFile
appender.audit_rolling.name = audit_rolling
appender.audit_rolling.fileName = ${sys:es.logs.base_path}${sys:file.separator}${sys:es.logs.cluster_name}_audit.json
appender.audit_rolling.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.audit_rolling.layout.pattern = {\
               ...
                }%n

appender.audit_rolling.filePattern = ${sys:es.logs.base_path}${sys:file.separator}${sys:es.logs.cluster_name}_audit-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.json.gz
appender.audit_rolling.policies.type = Policies
appender.audit_rolling.policies.time.type = TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.audit_rolling.policies.time.interval = 1
appender.audit_rolling.policies.time.modulate = true
appender.audit_rolling.policies.size.type = SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.audit_rolling.policies.size.size = 700MB
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.type = DefaultRolloverStrategy
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.fileIndex = nomax
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.action.type = Delete
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.action.basepath = ${sys:es.logs.base_path}
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.action.condition.type = IfFileName
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.action.condition.glob = ${sys:es.logs.cluster_name}-*
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.action.condition.nested_condition.type = IfLastModified
appender.audit_rolling.strategy.action.condition.nested_condition.age = 7D

```

it seems that the rotated does it correctly but it does not delete the files every 7 days, could someone help me with this problem?

thanks and best regards

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Venkata\_Raja](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/venkata_raja/32/114264_2.png) [@Venkata\_Raja](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Venkata_Raja)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/audit-log-time-based-deletion-policy-not-working/321022/2 "2022-12-12T12:31:07Z")

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Hi,

You can use [ILM](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.5/index-lifecycle-management.html) policy to achieve the same.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![irivas95](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@irivas95](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/irivas95)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/audit-log-time-based-deletion-policy-not-working/321022/3 "2022-12-12T12:35:07Z")

</div>

hi, thanks for your answer.  
I am referring to logs generated by elasticsearch itself that are located in /var/log/elasticsearch, not those logs that I am ingesting.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadiasish](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadiasish/32/114221_2.png) [@dadiasish](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadiasish)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/audit-log-time-based-deletion-policy-not-working/321022/4 "2022-12-12T12:59:00Z")

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Can you check if your files are matching the glob condition you've given?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2023, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/audit-log-time-based-deletion-policy-not-working/321022/5 "2023-01-09T12:59:32Z")

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