Index Lifecycle Management Stalls
warningILM policies failing to execute transitions (hot to warm, warm to cold, delete) causes indices to accumulate in wrong tiers, wasting resources and degrading performance.
elasticsearch.ilm showing policy execution failures or indices stuck in phases beyond expected timeframes
Check ILM policy status via GET /_ilm/policy and GET /index/_ilm/explain APIs. Common issues: (1) Shrink action failing - verify shard allocation allows shrink target, (2) Rollover not triggering - check conditions (age, size, doc count) against actual index stats, (3) Delete action blocked - unassigned shards prevent deletion, (4) Insufficient disk space in target tier. Review policy configuration for conflicting conditions. Use _ilm/retry to restart failed steps after resolving issues. Monitor elasticsearch.data_stream metrics if using data streams with ILM. Verify node attributes for tier allocation (data_hot, data_warm, data_cold) match policy requirements.