# Monitoring indices configuration
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitoring-indices-configuration/334661
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** elastic-stack-monitoring
**Created:** [May 30, 2023, 9:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitoring-indices-configuration/334661 "2023-05-30T09:54:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Itay\_Bittan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Itay_Bittan)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2023, 9:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitoring-indices-configuration/334661/1 "2023-05-30T09:54:53Z")
Hi all!
We are running ECK and we are trying to implement the [best practices](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/monitoring-production.html) ([metrics/metricbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-on-k8s/master/k8s-stack-monitoring.html#k8s-stack-monitoring)) and use a small dedicated cluster for monitoring.
Before separation, with monitoring enabled, we had a 7 special indices (something like `.es-monitoring-YYYY.MM.dd`) - each represents **a day** in the last week.
Now, after implementing the "external monitoring" cluster, everything works, but we have a strange indices that store data for more than a day and we have only two of them, looks like:
`.ds-.monitoring-es-8-mb-2023.05.26-000007`
- What does the `ds` represents?
- Why isn't that index per day as before?
- Is there anything to be worry about or is that ok?
---
### Author:  [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitoring-indices-configuration/334661/2 "2023-05-30T12:44:56Z")
> [@Itay\_Bittan](#):
>
> What does the `ds` represents?
This means that this is a backing indice for a data stream, it is how the beats store data now.
You can check on your monitoring cluster, go to _Index Management_ under _Stack Management_ and look at the _Data Streams_ tab, there you will see the data streams and the backing indices.
> [@Itay\_Bittan](#):
>
> Why isn't that index per day as before?
Elastic changed from normal indices to data streams, and the beats data streams also have a default Index Lifecycle Policy associated to rollover and delete the data after some time.
> [@Itay\_Bittan](#):
>
> Is there anything to be worry about or is that ok?
No, you only need to check the default policy for how many days the data will be kept in the monitoring cluster and if you have disk space for that.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2023, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitoring-indices-configuration/334661/3 "2023-06-27T12:45:38Z")
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