# Deletion of indices

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deletion-of-indices/376002>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 17, 2025, 11:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deletion-of-indices/376002 "2025-03-17T11:08:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sreya\_14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@sreya\_14](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sreya_14)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2025, 11:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deletion-of-indices/376002/1 "2025-03-17T11:08:06Z")

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Getting FS utilization alert from elasticsearch node .On further checking I found some old indices  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/2/index/\_bs.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/2/index/\_68.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/2/index/\_gu.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/1/index/\_5o.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/1/index/\_gb.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/1/index/\_ap.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/3/index/\_6i.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/3/index/\_g0.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/3/index/\_b9.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/4/index/\_bt.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/4/index/\_6h.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/4/index/\_ga.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/0/index/\_gv.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/0/index/\_bs.fdt  
/u01/app/elkprd/elasticsearch/var/lib/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/\_0IJAYgVTh2N1tHfmaxclQ/0/index/\_72.fdt

Can these indices be archived to free up the spaces?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [March 17, 2025, 12:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deletion-of-indices/376002/2 "2025-03-17T12:51:25Z")

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Do not ever alter or delete anything from the Elasticsearch data path - ALWAYS use the Elasticsearch APIs to delete or modify indices. If you want to backup data before deleting it from the cluster, use the [snapshot API](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/create-snapshot-api.html).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sreya\_14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@sreya\_14](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sreya_14)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2025, 9:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deletion-of-indices/376002/3 "2025-03-18T09:59:58Z")

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can you guide me through ? Because I am new to ELK . Should I use Kibana API for taking snapshot?  
After deletion of the indices , the disk space in the server would be free up ?