Elasticsearch – Managing Index Lifecycle
Managing the index lifecycle involves performing management actions based on factors like shard size and performance requirements. The index lifecycle management (ILM) APIs enable you to automate how you want to manage your indices over time.
This chapter gives a list of ILM APIs and their usage.
Policy Management APIs
| API Name |
Purpose |
Example |
| Create lifecycle policy. |
Creates a lifecycle policy. If the specified policy exists, the policy is replaced and the policy version is incremented. |
PUT_ilm/policy/policy_id |
| Get lifecycle policy. |
Returns the specified policy definition. Includes the policy version and last modified date. If no policy is specified, returns all defined policies. |
GET_ilm/policy/policy_id |
| Delete lifecycle policy |
Deletes the specified lifecycle policy definition. You cannot delete policies that are currently in use. If the policy is being used to manage any indices, the request fails and returns an error. |
DELETE_ilm/policy/policy_id |
Index Management APIs
| API Name |
Purpose |
Example |
| Move to lifecycle step API. |
Manually moves an index into the specified step and executes that step. |
POST_ilm/move/index |
| Retry policy. |
Sets the policy back to the step where the error occurred and executes the step. |
POST index/_ilm/retry |
| Remove policy from index API edit. |
Removes the assigned lifecycle policy and stops managing the specified index. If an index pattern is specified, removes the assigned policies from all matching indices. |
POST index/_ilm/remove |
Operation Management APIs
| API Name |
Purpose |
Example |
| Get index lifecycle management status API. |
Returns the status of the ILM plugin. The operation_mode field in the response shows one of three states: STARTED, STOPPING, or STOPPED. |
GET /_ilm/status |
| Start index lifecycle management API. |
Starts the ILM plugin if it is currently stopped. ILM is started automatically when the cluster is formed.
|
POST /_ilm/start |
| Stop index lifecycle management API. |
Halts all lifecycle management operations and stops the ILM plugin. This is useful when you are performing maintenance on the cluster and need to prevent ILM from performing any actions on your indices. |
POST /_ilm/stop |
| Explain lifecycle API. |
Retrieves information about the index’s current lifecycle state, such as the currently executing phase, action, and step. Shows when the index entered each one, the definition of the running phase, and information about any failures. |
GET index/_ilm/explain |