# Custom index names with an ILM policy
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852
**Category:** Beats
**Tags:** filebeat, metricbeat, auditbeat
**Created:** [July 20, 2020, 8:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852 "2020-07-20T08:02:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@michielM](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/michielM)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2020, 8:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852/1 "2020-07-20T08:02:24Z")
Hi all, I am trying to setup my elk stack and beats in a way that I can have an ILM policy in combination with custom index names.
For example:
I want to have the index name filebeat-department-01/01/2000
and have it closed after 30 days and deleted after 44 days.
But when I create a custom index name like filebeat-department-01/01/2000
Indexes are getting created automatically every day. Which I do not want since it's much harder to manage.
Is there a way to create custom index names without having daily indexes?
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### Author:  [@Mario\_Castro](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mario_Castro)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2020, 9:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852/2 "2020-07-20T09:24:10Z")
Hi @michielM 🙂
Maybe you are lacking the ILM pattern? [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/ilm.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/ilm.html) Daily indices are the _way to go_ so it seems like a conceptual problem from your side. If you have an fat index, you cannot close and delete part of it after X days. They way it works is by deleting full indexes. That's how you achieve to have only the last 30 days (last 30 indices)
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### Author:  [@michielM](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/michielM)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2020, 7:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852/3 "2020-07-27T07:53:11Z")
Hi @Mario_Castro, thanks for the quick reply.
I thought that if I wanted to create my own index name, I can't use the ILM anymore?
What would be the right way to configure this? Above you can see the current config.
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### Author:  [@Mario\_Castro](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mario_Castro)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2020, 8:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852/4 "2020-07-27T08:12:46Z")
Check the parameter `setup.ilm.pattern` in the link above.
EDIT: You can use your own index name and in the image attached you have ILM disabled too.
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### Author:  [@michielM](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/michielM)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2020, 8:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852/5 "2020-07-27T08:35:36Z")
Okay I see,
So do I just put `setup.ilm.enabled: auto`
and `setup.ilm.pattern: "{now/M{yyyy.MM}}-000001"`
Or am I missing something else here?
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2020, 10:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/custom-index-names-with-an-ilm-policy/241852/6 "2020-08-24T10:35:39Z")
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