-->

Policy phases and actions

There are four stages in the index lifecycle, in the order they are executed.

Name Description

hot

The index is actively being written to

warm

The index is generally not being written to, but is still queried

cold

The index is no longer being updated and is seldom queried. The information still needs to be searchable, but it’s okay if those queries are slower.

delete

The index is no longer needed and can safely be deleted

Each of these stages is called a "phase". A policy does not need to configure each phase for an index. For example, one policy may define only the hot phase and the delete phase, while another may define all four phases.