# \[ElasticSearch v.7.5\] How to delete all indexes older than 6 month automatically?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 14, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036 "2024-01-14T19:06:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/1 "2024-01-14T19:06:31Z")
How to delete all indexes older than 6 month automatically?
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2024, 3:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/2 "2024-01-15T03:21:54Z")
I would:
- Upgrade to at least 7.17 as a matter of urgency
- Ideally upgrade to 8.11
- Use ILM. See [ILM: Manage the index lifecycle | Elasticsearch Guide [8.11] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/index-lifecycle-management.html) or [ILM: Manage the index lifecycle | Elasticsearch Guide [7.17] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/index-lifecycle-management.html) for 7.17
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/3 "2024-01-16T17:05:22Z")
Take into account that it is currently not possible to perform the upgrade, what are the steps for deleting all indexes older than six months automatically?
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/4 "2024-01-16T17:08:26Z")
In addition , the provided link is very large and have many chapters that I don't know where to find what I need and what action plan should I do in order to achieve my simple request of delete all indexes older than 6 month.
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/5 "2024-01-16T20:38:27Z")
What are your index names?
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 9:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/6 "2024-01-16T21:17:10Z")
myindex\_2023\_04
myindex1\_2023\_05\_14
myindex3-2023-06
sample
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 9:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/7 "2024-01-16T21:37:32Z")
Once you have identified the list of indices, you can run:
```
DELETE index1,index2,index3
```
Or you can try to generate the index name using date maths. See [Date math support in index and index alias names | Elasticsearch Guide [7.17] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/date-math-index-names.html)
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 9:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/8 "2024-01-16T21:54:25Z")
the question was how to delete indexes older than 6 months.
we have a large amount of indexes with different names and each index have monthly or daily fashion
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 10:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/9 "2024-01-16T22:14:35Z")
That's what I wrote with date math. You can use that with some wildcards I guess.
But ideally use ILM. That will make your life easier.
Otherwise a shell script and iterate over the list of indices. You might have the creation date as a metadata.
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2024, 9:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/10 "2024-01-17T09:40:17Z")
What is the detailed action plant to configure ILM to do the that?
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2024, 10:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/11 "2024-01-17T10:10:32Z")
You should read [the documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/index-lifecycle-management.html).
With recent versions of Kibana, you would be most likely guided to configure all that from the Kibana admin interface. Not sure about your old version though. Give it a look.
But basically, you'd need to define a [Delete Policy](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/ilm-delete.html).
Probably as well, apply manually the policy to your index: [Manage existing indices | Elasticsearch Guide [7.17] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/ilm-with-existing-indices.html)
You have an API example in that page: [Configure a lifecycle policy | Elasticsearch Guide [7.17] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/set-up-lifecycle-policy.html#ilm-create-policy)
Basically something like:
```auto
PUT _ilm/policy/my_policy
{
"policy": {
"phases": {
"delete": {
"min_age": "180d",
"actions": {
"delete": {}
}
}
}
}
}
```
```auto
PUT index-names*/_settings
{
"index": {
"lifecycle": {
"name": "my_policy"
}
}
}
```
And if ILM is not started yet:
```auto
POST _ilm/start
```
Alternatively, you could have a look at [Curator Reference [8.0] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/current/index.html)
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2024, 11:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/12 "2024-01-17T11:17:06Z")
Thank you very much.
Is it possible to use the last version of kibana with Elasticsearch 7.5?
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2024, 12:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/13 "2024-01-17T12:42:54Z")
> [@mpniel](#):
>
> Is it possible to use the last version of kibana with Elasticsearch 7.5?
No it's not.
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/14 "2024-01-28T22:09:38Z")
1. How to set a delete policy as a default for any index that will be created in the future?
2. How set a delete policy for all existing indices?
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/15 "2024-01-29T01:42:48Z")
What did you try so far? What can you see on Kibana? What is unclear?
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/16 "2024-01-29T19:53:37Z")
I will rewrite better my previous questions
1. Is it posible to set a delete policy as a default for any index that will be created in the future?
2. Is it possible to set a delete policy for all existing indices?
---
### Author:  [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/17 "2024-01-29T19:59:36Z")
> [@mpniel](#):
>
> Is it posible to set a delete policy as a default for any index that will be created in the future?
Yes, you can do this through an index template. Look at the links David provided above for details.
> [@mpniel](#):
>
> Is it possible to set a delete policy for all existing indices?
Yes can do this by updating the settings of all or a selection of indices. Look at the example David provided.
---
### Author:  [@mpniel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mpniel)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 9:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/18 "2024-01-29T21:20:52Z")
updating the settings can be done in one command for a group of indices or you have to do it for each index?
---
### Author:  [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2024, 6:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/19 "2024-01-30T06:28:23Z")
The example David provided updates the setting based on a index pattern with wildcard, so it is as you can see possible to update in groups.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2024, 6:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-v-7-5-how-to-delete-all-indexes-older-than-6-month-automatically/351036/20 "2024-02-27T06:28:45Z")
This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.