# ILM not deleting index
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management
**Created:** [June 29, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241 "2023-06-29T20:36:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@raymondmintz11](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raymondmintz11)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/1 "2023-06-29T20:36:53Z")
I am running a simple setup with ILM and small index. ILM should delete the index but instead its stuck at "step": "check-rollover-ready",
here is my script to recreate the index
```auto
#!/bin/bash
echo -e "\n update settings"
curl -s -XPUT localhost:9200/_cluster/settings -H"content-type: application/json" -d'
{
"persistent": {
"indices.lifecycle.poll_interval": "1s",
"logger.org.elasticsearch.xpack.ilm": "TRACE"
}
}
'
echo -e "\nadd index template"
curl -s -XPUT localhost:9200/_template/devtest -H"content-type: application/json" -d'
{
"index_patterns": [
"devtest-*"
],
"settings": {
"index": {
"lifecycle": {
"name": "devtest",
"rollover_alias": "devtest"
},
"number_of_shards": "1",
"number_of_replicas": "0"
}
}
}
'
echo -e "\nadd policy version 1"
curl -s -XPUT -H"content-type: application/json" localhost:9200/_ilm/policy/devtest -d'
{
"policy": {
"phases": {
"hot": {
"min_age": "0ms",
"actions": {
"rollover": {
"max_size": "50mb",
"max_age": "2m"
}
}
},
"delete": {
"min_age": "2m",
"actions": {
"delete": {}
}
}
}
}
}
'
echo -e "\ncreating index devtest"
curl -s -XPUT -H"content-type: application/json" localhost:9200/devtest-000001 -d'
{
"aliases": {
"devtest": {
"is_write_index": true
}
}
}
'
```
This is the result after waiting a few minutes:
```auto
# curl -s localhost:9200/devtest/_ilm/explain | jq .
{
"indices": {
"devtest-000001": {
"index": "devtest-000001",
"managed": true,
"policy": "devtest",
"index_creation_date_millis": 1688070066041,
"time_since_index_creation": "14.44m",
"lifecycle_date_millis": 1688070066041,
"age": "14.44m",
"phase": "hot",
"phase_time_millis": 1688070125507,
"action": "rollover",
"action_time_millis": 1688070139520,
"step": "check-rollover-ready",
"step_time_millis": 1688070139520,
"phase_execution": {
"policy": "devtest",
"phase_definition": {
"min_age": "0ms",
"actions": {
"rollover": {
"max_size": "50mb",
"max_age": "2m"
}
}
},
"version": 1,
"modified_date_in_millis": 1688070043004
}
}
}
}
```
# curl -s localhost:9200 | jq .version.number
"8.6.2"
Please advise , Thank you
---
### Author:  [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 8:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/2 "2023-06-29T20:43:00Z")
Those values you are using are pretty small, ILM works best with size around tens of GB and age around days.
It is even pretty hard to test ILM with those small values.
Are you planning to use those small values on production or is just trying to test ILM?
---
### Author:  [@raymondmintz11](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raymondmintz11)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/3 "2023-06-29T20:55:16Z")
no, production will have much larger indexes, this is just to keep things as simple as possible so I can troubleshoot the issue.
Ill go ahead and make it larger and test again
---
### Author:  [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 9:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/4 "2023-06-29T21:46:06Z")
Hi @raymondmintz11 Welcome to the comunity!
> [@raymondmintz11](#):
>
> no, production will have much larger indexes, this is just to keep things as simple as possible so I can troubleshoot the issue.
> Ill go ahead and make it larger and test again
As @leandrojmp mentioned ILM is meant to be used on the scale of GB and Hours and up...
It has been my experience that Making the values unrealistically smal can actually make it harder to debug.
What are you actually trying to debug / figure out?
` "indices.lifecycle.poll_interval": "1s",`
Event thought that is probably accepted that is probably not really valid...
---
### Author:  [@raymondmintz11](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raymondmintz11)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/5 "2023-06-29T21:55:43Z")
Im trying to understand why the last index of my rollover gets stuck in "check-rollover-ready".
Basically the last rollover index does not delete as expected.
I have a cluster that uses ILM with 100's of GB of data and for testing purposes have set the index to delete after 15 minutes to no avail
---
### Author:  [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/6 "2023-06-29T21:58:44Z")
> [@raymondmintz11](#):
>
> Im trying to understand why the last index of my rollover
What does that mean "last index"
---
### Author:  [@raymondmintz11](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raymondmintz11)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/7 "2023-06-29T21:59:57Z")
last index is the last rollover, in this case its the one ending in "\*-000003"
````auto
green open soc-2023.06.06-000001 W-0pBQgYRhCbnumtURENgQ 10 1 0 0 4.3kb 2.1kb
green open soc-2023.06.08-000001 Ue4eTxq8QQK3ces6AlRp0w 1 1 21509904 0 40.3gb 20.1gb
green open soc-2023.06.08-000003 _ypdsZCYTU6PkT0VPgyVDw 1 1 21719426 0 40.3gb 20.1gb```
````
---
### Author:  [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 10:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/8 "2023-06-29T22:03:09Z")
> [@raymondmintz11](#):
>
> `soc-2023.06.08-000003 `
What is the `_ilm/explain` on that index
What is the ILM policy for that index.
And something looks odd why did the numbers restart, missing etc did you manually update / recreated etc?
---
### Author:  [@raymondmintz11](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raymondmintz11)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 10:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/9 "2023-06-29T22:09:35Z")
sorry to switch the index in the middle of example, but this index here might highlight the issue better.
The step is stuck in "check-rollover-ready" thus not moving on to delete the index
```auto
[Thu Jun 29 22:05:20] root@someHost:~# curl -s localhost:9200/soc-2023.06.11-000002/_ilm/explain | jq .
{
"indices": {
"soc-2023.06.11-000002": {
"index": "soc-2023.06.11-000002",
"managed": true,
"policy": "soc_datastream_policy",
"index_creation_date_millis": 1686497836765,
"time_since_index_creation": "18.26d",
"lifecycle_date_millis": 1686497836765,
"age": "18.26d",
"phase": "hot",
"phase_time_millis": 1686497837908,
"action": "rollover",
"action_time_millis": 1686497839509,
"step": "check-rollover-ready",
"step_time_millis": 1686497839509,
"phase_execution": {
"policy": "soc_datastream_policy-2023.06.11",
"phase_definition": {
"min_age": "0ms",
"actions": {
"rollover": {
"max_size": "80gb"
}
}
},
"version": 1,
"modified_date_in_millis": 1686430803487
}
}
}
}
[Thu Jun 29 22:05:26] root@someHost:~#
[Thu Jun 29 22:05:27] root@someHost:~#
[Thu Jun 29 22:05:28] root@someHost:~# curl -s localhost:9200/_ilm/policy/soc_datastream_policy | jq .
{
"soc_datastream_policy": {
"version": 7,
"modified_date": "2023-06-29T18:12:51.122Z",
"policy": {
"phases": {
"warm": {
"min_age": "2m",
"actions": {
"set_priority": {
"priority": 80
}
}
},
"hot": {
"min_age": "0ms",
"actions": {
"set_priority": {
"priority": 100
},
"rollover": {
"max_size": "50gb",
"max_age": "1m"
}
}
},
"delete": {
"min_age": "4m",
"actions": {
"delete": {
"delete_searchable_snapshot": true
}
}
}
},
"in_use_by": {
"indices": [
"soc-2023.06.11-000002",
"soc-2023.06.09-000002"
],
"data_streams": [],
"composable_templates": []
}
}
}
[Thu Jun 29 22:05:32] root@someHost:~#
```
---
### Author:  [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/10 "2023-06-29T22:21:07Z")
So @raymondmintz11 Some subtlety here I think.
> [@raymondmintz11](#):
>
> ```auto
> [Thu Jun 29 22:05:28] root@someHost:~# curl -s localhost:9200/_ilm/policy/soc_datastream_policy | jq .
> {
> "soc_datastream_policy": {
> "version": 7,
>
> ```
```auto
[Thu Jun 29 22:05:20] root@someHost:~# curl -s localhost:9200/soc-2023.06.11-000002/_ilm/explain | jq .
{
"indices": {
"soc-2023.06.11-000002": {
"index": "soc-2023.06.11-000002",
.....
},
"version": 1,
"modified_date_in_millis": 1686430803487
}
```
So ILM you are looking at the Latest version of the policy Version 7 but the actual Index is under Versions 1 ... So that could explain it... There are points in time when an Index
If version 1 is 50GB + 30 Days you might be stuck in that... just a thought
Trying to think if you can see the cached version of the ILM policy
Perhaps read [this](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/update-lifecycle-policy.html#ilm-apply-changes)....
> ### How changes are applied
>
> When a policy is initially applied to an index, the index gets the latest version of the policy. If you update the policy, the policy version is bumped and ILM can detect that the index is using an earlier version that needs to be updated.
>
> Changes to `min_age` are not propagated to the cached definition. Changing a phase’s `min_age` does not affect indices that are currently executing that phase.
>
> For example, if you create a policy that has a hot phase that does not specify a `min_age`, indices immediately enter the hot phase when the policy is applied. If you then update the policy to specify a `min_age` of 1 day for the hot phase, that has no effect on indices that are already in the hot phase. Indices created _after_ the policy update won’t enter the hot phase until they are a day old.
>
> ### How new policies are applied
>
> When you apply a different policy to a managed index, the index completes the current phase using the cached definition from the previous policy. The index starts using the new policy when it moves to the next phase.
---
### Author:  [@raymondmintz11](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raymondmintz11)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 10:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/11 "2023-06-29T22:23:26Z")
ill create another index with the same version throughout its life cycle and get back to you.
Thanks for the reference there.
---
### Author:  [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2023, 10:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-not-deleting-index/337241/12 "2023-06-29T22:26:30Z")
> [@raymondmintz11](#):
>
> ```auto
> "policy": "soc_datastream_policy-2023.06.11",
> "phase_definition": {
> "min_age": "0ms",
> "actions": {
> "rollover": {
> "max_size": "80gb"