# ILM forcemerge of empty index takes ~5 minutes

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-forcemerge-of-empty-index-takes-5-minutes/305048>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management\
**Created:** [May 18, 2022, 10:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-forcemerge-of-empty-index-takes-5-minutes/305048 "2022-05-18T10:46:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nisow95612](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nisow95612](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nisow95612)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 10:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-forcemerge-of-empty-index-takes-5-minutes/305048/1 "2022-05-18T10:46:03Z")

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This is a minor observation on 7.17:  
When ILM tries to forcemerge a new & completely empty index, it takes surprisingly long.

I often reindex like this: I first create and empty index with `index.lifecycle.origination_date` set, wait for ILM to reach "complete" and put the index "whereever it is supposed to be", remove write block and then start reindexing. However, recently I started using ILM forcemerges.

ILM used to zip through all the states and reach complete almost immediately, but the "forcemerge" action is different. It spends about 250-300 seconds in step "segment-count". Is it just because it is waiting for segment count 1, but segment count is zero, or there is a deeper problem?

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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 15, 2022, 10:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-forcemerge-of-empty-index-takes-5-minutes/305048/2 "2022-06-15T10:46:34Z")

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