# Move existing index from hot node to cold node

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/move-existing-index-from-hot-node-to-cold-node/376037>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management\
**Created:** [March 18, 2025, 4:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/move-existing-index-from-hot-node-to-cold-node/376037 "2025-03-18T04:44:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chaviru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Chaviru](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Chaviru)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2025, 4:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/move-existing-index-from-hot-node-to-cold-node/376037/1 "2025-03-18T04:44:08Z")

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Hello all,

I currently have created an mapped a new ILM polciy for my indices right now. But there are some older indices which are mapped to the older ILM policy. This index size is very big and currently I need to move this index to cold phase as my hot node is filling fast. I have changed the index settings as

"allocation": {  
"include": {  
"\_tier\_preference": "data\_cold"

But still the index is in the hot node. I need to move this to cold phase as soon as possible as my hot nodes are filling.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/5/8/58f51666ba83be9c32702fb9739a3fcd71da6583.png)

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/f/3/f354c32cc3af056723cb92119694c76ad9af79b3.png)

In addition to this issue, I have created the new ILM policy to move indices from hot to cold after 3 days. But when I check, the indices are like 7 days older but still in the hot phase. When I check whether it is transfered to cold it is still in hot.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/9/4/948fb8a3e7159710674c068b4c0d49df0aab17f1.png)

If you could help me on this matter it would be great.

Thank you.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![iulia](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/iulia/32/124658_2.png) [@iulia](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/iulia)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2025, 10:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/move-existing-index-from-hot-node-to-cold-node/376037/2 "2025-03-18T10:57:52Z")

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Hi,

A few initial thoughts:

- Once you create a new policy, you can specify that it should be applied to all new indexes, or you can also manually apply the policy to an existing index:  
[Manage existing indices | Elasticsearch Guide [8.17] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/ilm-with-existing-indices.html#ilm-existing-indices-apply)

- Secondly, I can see in the first screenshot that the `logs` policy has the default value of `"max_age" = 30days` which means that it is meant to migrate your index from hot once it reaches 30 days old - is this the current policy you want to apply or the previous one?

To get some more context - which version of Elastic are you running on?  
There is a [troubleshooting section](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/data-tiers.html#data-tier-allocation-troubleshooting) on our docs explaining that:  
`The _tier_preference setting might conflict with other allocation settings. This conflict might prevent the shard from allocating. A conflict might occur when a cluster has not yet been completely migrated to data tiers.`

This is due to a change applied since `7.10` as explained here:

> **[Indices mix index allocation filters with data tiers node roles to move...](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/troubleshoot-migrate-to-tiers.html)**

Let me know if this helps!