Index lifetime policy -> remove link between policy and index template

Elastic Stack Elasticsearch
1

Hi all,

I was just playing a bit with index lifetime policy in 6.6.2.
As I understand I create a policy and then I add the policy to an index template.

I created it with kibana.

I have following questions:

  • I want to see which index templates are using a specific policy. How can I get this information? Can I filter the index_templates for having an lifetime policy set or is there an API method to see where which policy is used?
  • When I delete a policy, the reference in the index template remains. Shouldn't it be deleted?
  • Is there a way in kibana to remove the link between index template and lifecycle policy?
  • If not, how do I update the index template to get rid of the policy but keep all other template configuration?

Thanks,
Andreas

2

There is not currently an API to see which indices (or index templates) are using a specific policy. However, you can retrieve the list of all indices (GET _all) or all templates (GET _template) and look at the index.lifecycle.name setting - you can filter the results of those APIs using a script or the jq CLI tool.

You can see which indexes have a certain policy via Kibana by going to the "Index Management" tab and using a search like this in the searchbar: ilm.policy:my-policy (where my-policy is the name of your policy). However, there isn't a UI like this for index templates yet.

When I delete a policy, the reference in the index template remains. Shouldn't it be deleted?

It's possible to have an index or index template set to use a policy that doesn't exist. You might, for example, create an index template first, and then the policy that you want it to use. If an index is set to use a policy that doesn't exist, then ILM won't do anything to that index until a policy with that name is created.

Is there a way in kibana to remove the link between index template and lifecycle policy?

Not at this time. I agree this is something we should improve on!

If not, how do I update the index template to get rid of the policy but keep all other template configuration?

You'll have to retrieve the template, remove the setting index.lifecycle.name, and update the template - see the Index Template docs for more information.

3

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.