# Best practices for cleaning up old indices

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 19, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087 "2015-11-19T21:48:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![treehouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@treehouse](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/treehouse)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087/1 "2015-11-19T21:48:49Z")

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I can't use the curator plugin (or any other plugin really) because we are on AWS ES service.. I'm thinking the best I could do is write some bash scripts and fire them off with cron everyday , deleting old indices. does anyone have any best practice advise? thanks

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087/2 "2015-11-19T21:56:31Z")

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You can use curator called from another machine though.  
That is all you would be doing if you DIY some bash scripts, right?

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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:** [November 19, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087/3 "2015-11-19T22:04:09Z")

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Yes. Curator is not a plugin. It's a standalone app so it should work.

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**Author:** ![treehouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@treehouse](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/treehouse)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087/4 "2015-11-19T22:29:05Z")

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doh.. great, got it thanks.

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**Author:** ![theuntergeek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/theuntergeek/32/44961_2.png) [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087/5 "2015-11-19T22:30:52Z")

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@treehouse Curator 3.4.0 includes some fixes which specifically address usability within AWS ES. It should work just fine for what you need.

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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 5, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practices-for-cleaning-up-old-indices/35087/6 "2017-07-05T23:37:08Z")

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