# Delete index at a regular basis
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 4, 2016, 8:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621 "2016-07-04T08:41:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kennedy\_Kan1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kennedy_Kan1)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2016, 8:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/1 "2016-07-04T08:41:37Z")
I have made different kinds of indexes into ES and everytime I want to delete some old indexes, I need to write the currator command to delete old indices. Even though I have read through the examples from [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/current/examples.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/current/examples.html), I still do not quite understand how can I follow them. Would anyone can tell me how can I make ES to regularly delete old indices automatically?
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### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2016, 8:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/2 "2016-07-04T08:55:07Z")
The page you link to contains an example of how to delete old indexes: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/current/examples.html#ex\_delete\_indices](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/current/examples.html#ex_delete_indices)
If this doesn't work for you please describe in what way it doesn't work. Providing Curator logs would probably make it easier to help.
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### Author:  [@Kennedy\_Kan1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kennedy_Kan1)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2016, 10:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/3 "2016-07-04T10:20:51Z")
I am originally using curator 3.5.1 but then I have upgraded to curator 4. However I could not find where curator is stored. Therefore, I would wanna know where will the configuration file be and why there will be a missing of action\_file?
Here aresome screenshots for reference:
Great thanks in advance for telling where would the file be.
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### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2016, 10:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/4 "2016-07-04T10:46:19Z")
Please don't post screenshots of text that can be copied and pasted.
The action file is a YAML file containing the actions to execute, as found in the examples we talked about earlier. You can store your action file anywhere.
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### Author:  [@Kennedy\_Kan1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kennedy_Kan1)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2016, 10:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/5 "2016-07-04T10:54:42Z")
Sorry for the screenshots part.
Does that mean I need to create a new .curator directory and also my own curator.yml and action.yml file?
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### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2016, 11:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/6 "2016-07-04T11:21:41Z")
You can place curator.yml and action.yml anywhere you want and give them any name, but if you call the configuration file ~/.curator/curator.yml you won't have to use the `--config` option since the default will work. See [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/4.0/configfile.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/4.0/configfile.html) for more information about the configuration file.
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### Author:  [@Kennedy\_Kan1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kennedy_Kan1)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2016, 3:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/7 "2016-07-07T03:28:33Z")
Hi @magnusbaeck,
Thanks for your answer and sorry for a late reply. I have tried creating the curator and action yaml file. However, following the example, it can only filter named index by typing the wanted-to-delete index name in the **value** field. How about if I want to delete any index that is older than 5 days? How can I do so?
And, how can I make the curator to run regularly on a daily basis?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/8 "2016-07-07T05:34:45Z")
> However, following the example, it can only filter named index by typing the wanted-to-delete index name in the value field. How about if I want to delete any index that is older than 5 days? How can I do so?
I'm not sure what example you've been following, but the documentation's `delete_indices` example, [Examples | Curator Reference [4.0] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/4.0/examples.html#ex_delete_indices), shows how to delete indices older than 45 days.
> And, how can I make the curator to run regularly on a daily basis?
Use cron.
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### Author:  [@Kennedy\_Kan1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kennedy_Kan1)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/9 "2016-07-07T05:50:01Z")
Hi @magnusbaeck
Thanks for the reply. I have followed exactly the same link where you embedded but from that example, it can only delete with index that start with `logstash-`. Thus, I would wonder how to delete any index that older than 5 days?
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### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2016, 5:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/10 "2016-07-07T05:54:45Z")
This part makes sure the deletion action only applies to indices older than 45 days:
```auto
- filtertype: age
source: name
direction: older
timestring: '%Y.%m.%d'
unit: days
unit_count: 45
exclude:
```
Over and out.
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### Author:  [@Kennedy\_Kan1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kennedy_Kan1)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2016, 6:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/11 "2016-07-07T06:06:38Z")
Hi @magnusbaeck
Thanks. I am able to solve it now.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 10:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-index-at-a-regular-basis/54621/12 "2017-07-05T22:37:26Z")