# Existing index and lifecycle policy

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-index-and-lifecycle-policy/334666>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management\
**Created:** [May 30, 2023, 10:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-index-and-lifecycle-policy/334666 "2023-05-30T10:15:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zen.xen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e495f1/32.png) [@zen.xen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zen.xen)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2023, 10:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-index-and-lifecycle-policy/334666/1 "2023-05-30T10:15:12Z")

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Hello,  
I need some help, I've seen many web pages how to configure it but none of them were helpfull.

My existing index (daily index) is

> filebeat-exch-8.7.1-2023.05.30

I have created lifecycle policy

> 2-days

when I want to add this policy to my index I got this

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/7/0/70db8f71421b1351197beadb6077a6a3f92fcbf6.png)

What should I do to fix this? I don't have any `Data Streams` or `Index Templates`.

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**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 2, 2023, 5:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-index-and-lifecycle-policy/334666/3 "2023-06-02T05:19:17Z")

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@Alexis_Roberson I am a bit surprised by this response and have a few questions.

When ILM was first introduced I believe it was possible to use it with rollover indices (data streams did not exist at that point) as well as more traditional time-based indices where each index covers a set time period with the time period indicated in the name, which seems to be what the poster is using.

The key to using ILM with non-rollover indices was to not have a rollover action in the policy. This would them if I remember correctly base phase transitions on the indexcreation timestamp rather than the rollover timestamp.

In your response you specify that an index alias need to be created, which I was not expecting. Does this mean that ILM now only can be used with rollover type indices and that traditional time-based indices no longer are supported? If that is the case, when was this change made?

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**Author:** ![Alexis\_Roberson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/alexis_roberson/32/113233_2.png) [@Alexis\_Roberson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alexis_Roberson)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-index-and-lifecycle-policy/334666/4 "2023-06-02T15:23:49Z")

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@Christian_Dahlqvist Thanks for providing insight on this. It could be a misunderstanding on my end. Based on the section regarding managing indices without data streams, I drew this conclusion. Let me remove my response as it can be confusing and unhelpful for those viewing this question.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-index-and-lifecycle-policy/334666/5 "2023-06-30T15:23:58Z")

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