# Understand ILM (shrink index)

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management\
**Created:** [October 11, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407 "2021-10-11T20:10:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![elasticforme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f05b48/32.png) [@elasticforme](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elasticforme)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407/1 "2021-10-11T20:10:53Z")

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I have used ILM policy on my metricbeat data and used shrink option.

which worked and created new index called  
shrink-anre-metricbeat-7.15.0-2021.10.06-000010

but my index pattern is called "metricbeat-\*" how does it accessing that index which is not falling in to this pattern?

I am trying to understand how is it working?

yes I can see the data which are located on that shrink index on my dashboard.

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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:** [October 12, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407/2 "2021-10-12T00:09:52Z")

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From [Shrink | Elasticsearch Guide [7.15] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.15/ilm-shrink.html);

> After the `shrink` action, any aliases that pointed to the source index point to the new shrunken index.

So you should be able to see that in `_cat/aliases`.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elasticforme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f05b48/32.png) [@elasticforme](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elasticforme)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407/3 "2021-10-12T13:02:22Z")

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Hi Mark,  
ok good I see on \_cat/aliases I see that my metricbeat-\* now also has shrink-\* indices

but how did it got there? I didn't touch it. did ILM set that up?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 12, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407/4 "2021-10-12T20:53:43Z")

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Yep, ILM handles that.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elasticforme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f05b48/32.png) [@elasticforme](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elasticforme)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407/5 "2021-10-12T21:00:32Z")

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ohhh ok. got it that is what I was trying to find out how it is being done.  
once I know then if there is problem I can start debugging properly

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understand-ilm-shrink-index/286407/6 "2021-11-09T21:01:17Z")

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