# Export old indices before deleting them

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/export-old-indices-before-deleting-them/24482>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 27, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/export-old-indices-before-deleting-them/24482 "2015-06-27T16:02:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![palmerabollo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/palmerabollo/32/44772_2.png) [@palmerabollo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/palmerabollo)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/export-old-indices-before-deleting-them/24482/1 "2015-06-27T16:02:09Z")

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Hi!

I need a retention time of 2 months for the data in my elastic search cluster. After that period of time, I need to move my old data to a cheap storage such as s3 (just in case) and use curator to remove everything older than 2 months.

Should I use the snapshot API before using curator? Any details are welcome.

Thank you.

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**Author:** ![theuntergeek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/theuntergeek/32/44961_2.png) [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/export-old-indices-before-deleting-them/24482/2 "2015-06-27T16:15:22Z")

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Curator can also perform the snapshots 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![palmerabollo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/palmerabollo/32/44772_2.png) [@palmerabollo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/palmerabollo)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/export-old-indices-before-deleting-them/24482/3 "2015-06-27T16:31:45Z")

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Thanks @theuntergeek, you're right. Here is the link for further reference: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/current/snapshot.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/current/snapshot.html)

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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:** [July 6, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/export-old-indices-before-deleting-them/24482/4 "2017-07-06T00:04:57Z")

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