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Elasticsearch:Index lifecycle management

Last Updated:Feb 05, 2026

Index lifecycle management (ILM) automates index management, from rollover, retention, to deletion. Learn basic facts about ILM in Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch.

ILM phases

ILM defines the following indice phases:

  • Hot: New data is indexed here. Nodes are typically fast, high-performance, and resource-intensive.

  • Warm: Data has aged and is less frequently queried. Nodes are usually optimized for storage and cost-effectiveness.

  • Cold: Even older data, rarely accessed, moved to very cheap, slow storage.

  • Delete: Data is automatically removed after its retention period.

An index lifecycle policy defines what actions are performed in each phase, and when indices are transitioned between phases.

ILM actions

See Index lifecycle in Elasticsearch documentation.