# Upgrading from 7.x to 8.x with soft deletes disabled
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 23, 2026, 7:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722 "2026-01-23T19:04:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ahmedasadi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ahmedasadi)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2026, 7:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722/1 "2026-01-23T19:04:24Z")
Hi,
We use Elasticsearch as a lightweight index rather than a primary data store. The actual documents live elsewhere, and ES is only used to retrieve matching document IDs.
Our current Elasticsearch 7.x setup includes:
- \_source disabled
- Soft deletes disabled
- doc\_values disabled on one field, which is a large array of strings within each document
As we plan an upgrade to Elasticsearch 8.x, we understand that soft deletes are now mandatory and that parts of this configuration are no longer supported.
Given that constraint, are there any known workarounds or alternative configurations in 8.x that still allow for a storage-efficient, ID-only index?
---
### Author:  [@RainTown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RainTown)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2026, 8:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722/2 "2026-01-24T20:18:36Z")
> [@ahmedasadi](#):
>
> ES is only used to retrieve matching document IDs.
Can you expand on this a bit? Are you really _searching_ via Elasticsearch? Or is it effectively being used as a kind of KV store, and any “searches” are maybe better described as filtering?
redis is a better fit for lots of use cases. It’s just not clear if this might be one of them.
Also, why are you updating at all? Is there some feature of 8.x that you need ? If so, which ?
---
### Author:  [@ahmedasadi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ahmedasadi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 12:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722/3 "2026-01-28T00:01:18Z")
Hi Kevin,
I’m not using Elasticsearch as a KV store. Each document has a field that contains a list of strings, and I want to query for documents that contain those strings using AND/OR logic. For example:
(string1 OR string2) AND string3
As for the upgrade, the latest version of Elasticsearch 7.x depends on an end-of-life version of Ubuntu (20.04.6), which is the main driver for the upgrade. I’m not aware of any plans to update Elasticsearch 7.x with a new ubuntu version.
---
### Author:  [@RainTown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RainTown)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722/4 "2026-01-28T14:01:12Z")
Thanks for answer.
I realize IT is littered with not universally well-defined terminology, but whatever you have, which is being a little bit drip-fed, is not what _I_ would understand as a "ID-only index"? That is how you described it in the first post on the thread. Others might disagree here.
> [@ahmedasadi](#):
>
> As for the upgrade, the latest version of Elasticsearch 7.x depends on an end-of-life version of Ubuntu (20.04.6), which is the main driver for the upgrade. I’m not aware of any plans to update Elasticsearch 7.x with a new ubuntu version.
There will be no more releases to 7.x. But the latest 7.x releases support both Ubuntu 22.04 and RHEL 9. The latter of which will be supported for some time yet, for different values of "supported".
> **[Support Matrix](https://www.elastic.co/support/matrix)**
>
> The tables below display platform and software configurations that are eligible for support under our
> subscription offerings. Learn more about our
> Support Policy and product End of Life poli...
You asked for "workarounds or alternative configurations in 8.x". For the latter at least, I'd want to know more details than you have currently shared to be able to answer?
Can you share the mapping for the index/indices?
---
### Author:  [@ahmedasadi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ahmedasadi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 9:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722/5 "2026-01-28T21:58:37Z")
Thanks Kevin.
The latest 7.x Docker images are built on Ubuntu 20.04. Are there any plans to move to a newer, supported Ubuntu version?
The mapping for our index is shown below. Each document contains a tags field, which is a large array of strings. We need to query for documents that match specific combinations of tags using AND/OR logic.
We are only interested in retrieving the contentId for each matching document and do not need the \_source, since the full documents are stored in a separate datastore.
Additionally, the index is rebuilt daily and is immutable after creation, with no updates or deletions.
```auto
{
"index": {
"mappings": {
"dynamic": "strict",
"_source": {
"enabled": false
},
"properties": {
"tags": {
"type": "keyword",
"doc_values": false
},
"contentid": {
"type": "keyword"
}
}
}
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@RainTown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RainTown)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 10:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722/6 "2026-01-28T22:21:11Z")
> [@ahmedasadi](#):
>
> The latest 7.x Docker images are built on Ubuntu 20.04. Are there any plans to move to a newer, supported Ubuntu version?
I don't work for Elastic, so don't know. But I doubt it. There was a thread on here recently when someone was building docker images him/herself .... I guess you could do the same ... personally, I would not go there.
And your answer really takes me back to my first thought. Your tags are all keywords, so without getting into semantics I'd say your "searches” are maybe better described as logical filters. "(tag1 OR tag2) AND tag3". And honestly, I think redis is a decent alternative if my understanding is correct. I presume "large" in "large array of strings" is "a lot", often thousands or tens/hundreds of thousands?
BUT, if " the index is rebuilt daily and is immutable after creation, **with no updates or deletions**", why are you worrying about soft\_deletes? What am I missing ?
EDIT: I re-read this and is your concern only at the daily "index building" phase, i.e. the index is constructed via a sequence of updates to same IDs, maybe adding more and more tags to same document, before it reaches its final, immutable state? And without the ability to disable soft\_deletes you are concerned the disk usage will increase significantly during the index construction phase? if so, can you add some numbers? And did you test it on 8.x at all, validate the concern would be a real issue?
---
### Author:  [@RainTown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RainTown)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2026, 6:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-7-x-to-8-x-with-soft-deletes-disabled/384722/7 "2026-01-29T18:34:21Z")
I was bored so did little test, all on 7.latest.
I created 2 indices, tags mapped to keyword field, no docvalues, no \_source, and only difference was that soft deletes is enabled on one and disabled on the other. All changes are applied identically to docs in both indices. Each index starts with 100k documents with some random strings in tags.
index names are tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled & tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled
I then loop endlessly, just updating a random doc at each pass, adding another value to the tags array for that specific ID. So there is some slow natural growth in the index size, as more tags appear in some IDs. I used an English wordlist for the tags, just choose words randomly.
Every 20k updates I do a forcemerge.
Output is below. Clearly OOTB the disk space for tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled is significantly more, but once a forcemerge is run the reported disk usage is not so different between the indices with enabled and disabled soft deletes.
I didn't test anything wrt query performance.
Obviously this is just s small synthetic test, but maybe it suggests that while building your daily index, using forcemerge to manage your disk footprint _might_ be good enough, both on 7.,x and 8.x should be no different in this respect.
Obviously all depends on your actual numbers.
```auto
[2026-01-29 17:18:04] Performed 0 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.49 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 24.29 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:18:25] Performed 2000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.50 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 24.37 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:18:46] Performed 4000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.52 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 24.64 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:19:07] Performed 6000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.53 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 24.86 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:19:43] Performed 8000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.54 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 25.07 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:20:34] Performed 10000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.55 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 25.24 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:21:24] Performed 12000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.56 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 25.40 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:22:15] Performed 14000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.57 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 25.62 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:23:07] Performed 16000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.58 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 25.83 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:23:58] Performed 18000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.59 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 25.99 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:24:53] Performed 20000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.60 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 26.21 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:25:14] Performed 22000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.62 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 7.88 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:25:35] Performed 24000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.63 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.10 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:25:57] Performed 26000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.64 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.26 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:26:24] Performed 28000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.65 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.42 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:27:14] Performed 30000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.66 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.64 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:28:04] Performed 32000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.68 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.85 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:28:55] Performed 34000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.68 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.02 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:29:45] Performed 36000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.70 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.23 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:30:34] Performed 38000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.70 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.45 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:31:30] Performed 40000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.73 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 7.86 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:31:51] Performed 42000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.73 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 7.96 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:32:12] Performed 44000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.74 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.23 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:32:33] Performed 46000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.75 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.39 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:33:00] Performed 48000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.77 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.61 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:33:50] Performed 50000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.77 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.77 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:34:42] Performed 52000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.79 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.99 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:35:32] Performed 54000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.79 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.21 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:36:23] Performed 56000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.81 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.37 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:37:12] Performed 58000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.82 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.59 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:38:09] Performed 60000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.84 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 7.90 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:38:30] Performed 62000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.84 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.05 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:38:51] Performed 64000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.85 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.21 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:39:12] Performed 66000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.86 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.43 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:39:39] Performed 68000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.87 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.65 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:40:30] Performed 70000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.88 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.81 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:41:22] Performed 72000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.89 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.02 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:42:14] Performed 74000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.90 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.24 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:43:05] Performed 76000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.91 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.40 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:43:56] Performed 78000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.92 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.56 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:44:51] Performed 80000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.92 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.84 MB.
[2026-01-29 17:45:12] Performed 82000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 7.93 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.18 MB.
...
[2026-01-29 19:10:15] Performed 314000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.70 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.09 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:11:05] Performed 316000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.70 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.31 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:11:57] Performed 318000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.72 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.52 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:12:53] Performed 320000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.73 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.69 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:13:14] Performed 322000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.68 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 8.88 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:13:36] Performed 324000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.69 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.09 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:13:57] Performed 326000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.70 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.31 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:14:47] Performed 328000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.71 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.54 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:15:37] Performed 330000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.72 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.74 MB.
[2026-01-29 19:16:26] Performed 332000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 8.73 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 9.91 MB.
...
[2026-01-29 22:54:28] Performed 902000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.83 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.18 MB.
[2026-01-29 22:55:20] Performed 904000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.84 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.40 MB.
[2026-01-29 22:56:09] Performed 906000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.85 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.67 MB.
[2026-01-29 22:56:58] Performed 908000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.86 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.94 MB.
[2026-01-29 22:57:48] Performed 910000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.87 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 11.16 MB.
[2026-01-29 22:58:40] Performed 912000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.89 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 11.42 MB.
[2026-01-29 22:59:30] Performed 914000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.89 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 11.65 MB.
[2026-01-29 23:00:20] Performed 916000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 10.84 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 12.91 MB.
[2026-01-29 23:01:11] Performed 918000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 10.87 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 13.19 MB.
[2026-01-29 23:02:07] Performed 920000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.89 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.01 MB.
[2026-01-29 23:02:57] Performed 922000 updates. Disk usage: tagtest-soft-deletes-disabled 9.89 MB. tagtest-soft-deletes-enabled 10.18 MB.
```