# ES fails to delete index

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-fails-to-delete-index/52757>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 14, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-fails-to-delete-index/52757 "2016-06-14T15:43:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bluethundr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bluethundr/32/409_2.png) [@bluethundr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bluethundr)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-fails-to-delete-index/52757/1 "2016-06-14T15:43:10Z")

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Hey guys,

I'm trying to delete an index, and it doesn't seem to be working.

This is the message I'm seeing in the terminal when I run the delete command:

```
curl -uadmin:$ES_PASS logs.example.com:9200/topbeat--2016.06.14 -XDELETE
{"error":{"root_cause":[{"type":"process_cluster_event_timeout_exception","reason":"failed to process cluster event (delete-index [topbeat--2016.06.14]) within 30s"}],"type":"process_cluster_event_timeout_exception","reason":"failed to process cluster event (delete-index [topbeat--2016

```

This is the message I'm getting in the logs:

```
[2016-06-14 11:59:05,420][WARN][rest.suppressed] /topbeat--2016.06.14 Params: {index=topbeat--2016.06.14}
ProcessClusterEventTimeoutException[failed to process cluster event (delete-index [topbeat--2016.06.14]) within 30s]
        at org.elasticsearch.cluster.service.InternalClusterService$2$1.run(InternalClusterService.java:349)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

```

I'm running elasticsearch-2.3.1-1 on centos 7.1

I really need to get this index deleted. What can I do to resolve this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ywelsch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ywelsch/32/7751_2.png) [@ywelsch](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ywelsch)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-fails-to-delete-index/52757/2 "2016-06-15T16:28:15Z")

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looks like your master node is overloaded while processing cluster state updates. Try again by increasing the `master_timeout` on the request (for example `curl -XDELETE -uadmin:$ES_PASS logs.example.com:9200/topbeat--2016.06.14?master_timeout=5m`) to give the master node more time to process the request.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-fails-to-delete-index/52757/3 "2017-07-05T22:43:34Z")

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