# Delete from read indexes **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [June 15, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919 "2021-06-15T02:49:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Deepti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Deepti](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Deepti)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/1 "2021-06-15T02:49:56Z")
Hello, I have a current write index and multiple read indexes .Is it possible to delete the documents from only the read indexes? Document with same ID will be present in both read and write index but I want the document to be deleted only from read index. Thanks ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 3:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/2 "2021-06-15T03:22:19Z")
> [@Deepti](#): > > Is it possible to delete the documents from only the read indexes Yes. If you are referring to ILM then the underlying indices are still standard Elasticsearch indices and can be manipulated. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 3:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/3 "2021-06-15T03:31:47Z")
It sounds like you want to delete from all indices in the index pattern except the one pointed to by the write alias. Is that correct? If so, that is as Mark pointed out possible but I do not think there is any easy way of addressing just these indices so you probably need a two stage process to find out which indices are to be deleted from and then list these explicitly. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/4 "2021-06-15T03:34:28Z")
It should be as easy as `index-pattern-0*`, as the alias is likely going to be `index-pattern` and all the underlying indices will have numbers preceding them. That's assuming the defaults though. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 3:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/5 "2021-06-15T03:37:36Z")
That would however include the index currently being written to and not just the read indices. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 3:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/6 "2021-06-15T03:39:13Z")
Yeah, good point! ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 3:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/7 "2021-06-15T03:39:34Z")
It might help if you described your use case. Maybe ILM with rollover is not the best fit for your requirements if you need to update documents and maintain only a single copy. ---
**Author:** ![Deepti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Deepti](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Deepti)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 4:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/8 "2021-06-15T04:10:17Z")
@Christian_Dahlqvist the use case here is as soon as I update the document in the write index ,I no longer need the other documents with the same ID which are present in read index, because when I try to get the documents I need the latest one, so I want to delete the documents in read index asynchronously, basically deletion of documents in read index should happen as a post process of updating a document in write index ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/9 "2021-06-15T04:12:27Z")
What drove the decision to use rollover? How much data do you have? How is this expected to grow over time? What are your requirements around retention? How frequently are documents updated? ---
**Author:** ![Deepti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Deepti](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Deepti)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 4:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/10 "2021-06-15T04:29:21Z")
Once a document is updated I no longer need the older ones , Documents will be updated very frequently so when I try to get I just need the latest one, I don't need multiple documents with the same ID ---
**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:** [June 15, 2021, 4:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/11 "2021-06-15T04:33:04Z")
Then using ILM for this doesn't make any sense. Use a single index and then just update the existing document. ---
**Author:** ![Deepti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Deepti](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Deepti)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 3:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/12 "2021-06-16T03:45:30Z")
Thanks @warkolm @Christian_Dahlqvist ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2021, 3:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-from-read-indexes/275919/13 "2021-07-14T03:46:03Z")
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