Index Lifecycles
  • 15 Feb 2022
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Index Lifecycles

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Article Summary

An index’s lifecycle policy specifies which phases are applicable, what actions are performed in each phase, and when it transitions between phases.

  • Hot: The index is actively being updated and queried.
    • 96:1 GB of Disk to RAM ratio, requires 2x storage to provide redundancy
  • Warm: The index is no longer updated but is still queried.
    • 200:1 GB of Disk to RAM ratio, requires 2x storage to provide redundancy
  • Cold: The index is no longer updated and is queried infrequently. The information still needs to be searchable, but it’s okay if those queries are slower.
    • 96:1 GB of Disk to RAM ratio, if straight from hot to cold, 200:1 ratio if warm also used. 1x storage, redundancy provided by snapshot
  • Frozen: The index is no longer updated and is queried rarely. The information still needs to be searchable, but it’s okay if those queries are extremely slow.
    •  Purely searchable snapshot, only metadata mounted in the cluster. 
  • Delete: The index is no longer needed and can safely be removed.


For more information, see Index Lifecycles and LM Overview from Elasticsearch Documentation.



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