# ILM - Index size doubles during shrink process

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-size-doubles-during-shrink-process/265019
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management
**Created:** [February 22, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-size-doubles-during-shrink-process/265019 "2021-02-22T01:23:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![vee](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vee/32/55759_2.png) [@vee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vee)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-size-doubles-during-shrink-process/265019/1 "2021-02-22T01:23:44Z")

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Hi -

I've noticed the index size when moved from hot to warm phase doubles up before shrinking in size. Just curious to know if this is the expected behavior and if there is a way to avoid the doubling up part of that from happening? We have sized our key to 300GB in size (3 shards, 1 replica). And when ILM kicks in, the same indices are increasing close to 700GB and shrunk to 1 shard, 1 replica. We are going to reduce the primary shard size to 100GB instead with same existing shards soon.

Thanks for your time.

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### Author: ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-size-doubles-during-shrink-process/265019/2 "2021-02-22T01:41:40Z")

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Yes it's expected, [Shrink index API | Elasticsearch Reference [7.11] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.11/indices-shrink-index.html#how-shrink-works) describes it a little more.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![vee](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vee/32/55759_2.png) [@vee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vee)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-size-doubles-during-shrink-process/265019/3 "2021-02-22T15:38:40Z")

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Thanks much!

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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: [March 22, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-size-doubles-during-shrink-process/265019/4 "2021-03-22T15:38:51Z")

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