# Circular data overwriting

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circular-data-overwriting/294768>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 19, 2022, 6:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circular-data-overwriting/294768 "2022-01-19T06:12:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jelns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@jelns](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jelns)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 6:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circular-data-overwriting/294768/1 "2022-01-19T06:12:58Z")

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Hi.  
Is it possible to cyclically overwrite data in Elasticsearch storage (as Round-robin databases do)? For instance, when the storage is full, new data will overwrite the oldest. Maybe there are some way to organize the similar mechanism?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 6:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circular-data-overwriting/294768/2 "2022-01-19T06:30:59Z")

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Data in Elasticsearch is stored in shards built from immutable segments. You therefore need to delete indices and shards to make space so there is no such overwrite mechanism.

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**Author:** ![Tomo\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@Tomo\_M](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tomo_M)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 7:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circular-data-overwriting/294768/3 "2022-01-19T07:51:38Z")

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It depends on your data and requirement, Data streams with ILM could be a help in some cases. It's not a per-document override, but it can delete old index and create new index automaticaly.

> **[Data streams | Elasticsearch Guide \[7.16\] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/data-streams.html)**

> **[ILM: Manage the index lifecycle | Elasticsearch Guide \[7.16\] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/index-lifecycle-management.html)**

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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:** [February 16, 2022, 7:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circular-data-overwriting/294768/4 "2022-02-16T07:52:35Z")

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