elasticsearch/docs/reference/ilm/slm-retention.asciidoc

[role="xpack"]
[testenv="basic"]
[[slm-retention]]
== Snapshot lifecycle management retention

Automatic deletion of older snapshots is an optional feature of snapshot lifecycle management.
Retention is run as a cluster level task that is not associated with a particular policy's schedule
(though the configuration of which snapshots to keep is done on a per-policy basis). Retention
configuration conists of two parts—The first a cluster-level configuration for when retention is
run and for how long, the second configured on a policy for which snapshots should be eligible for
retention.

The cluster level settings for retention are shown below, and can be changed dynamically using the
<<cluster-update-settings,cluster-update-settings>> API:

|=====================================
| Setting | Default value | Description

| `slm.retention_schedule` | `0 30 1 * * ?` | A periodic or absolute time schedule for when
  retention should be run. Supports all values supported by the cron scheduler: <<schedule-cron,Cron
  scheduler configuration>>. Retention can also be manually run using the
  <<slm-api-execute-retention,Execute retention API>>. Defaults to daily at 1:30am in the master
  node's timezone.

| `slm.retention_duration` | `"1h"` | A limit of how long SLM should spend deleting old snapshots.
|=====================================

Policy level configuration for retention is done inside the `retention` object when creating or
updating a policy. All of the retention configurations options are optional.

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT /_slm/policy/daily-snapshots
{
  "schedule": "0 30 1 * * ?",
  "name": "<daily-snap-{now/d}>",
  "repository": "my_repository",
  "retention": { <1>
    "expire_after": "30d", <2>
    "min_count": 5, <3>
    "max_count": 50 <4>
  }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TEST[setup:setup-repository]
<1> Optional retention configuration
<2> Keep snapshots for 30 days
<3> Always keep at least 5 successful snapshots
<4> Keep no more than 50 successful snapshots

Supported configuration for retention from within a policy are as follows. The default value for
each is unset unless specified by the user in the policy configuration.

NOTE: The oldest snapshots are always deleted first, in the case of a `max_count` of 5 for a policy
with 6 snapshots, the oldest snapshot will be deleted.

|=====================================
| Setting | Description
| `expire_after` | A timevalue for how old a snapshot must be in order to be eligible for deletion.
| `min_count` | A minimum number of snapshots to keep, regardless of age.
| `max_count` | The maximum number of snapshots to keep, regardless of age.
|=====================================

As an example, the retention setting in the policy configured about would read in English as:

____
Remove snapshots older than thirty days, but always keep the latest five snapshots. If there are
more than fifty snapshots, remove the oldest surplus snapshots until there are no more than fifty
successful snapshots.
____

If multiple policies are configured to snapshot to the same repository, or manual snapshots have
been taken without using the <<slm-api-execute,Execute Policy API>>, they are treated as not
eligible for retention, and do not count towards any limits. This allows multiple policies to have
differing retention configuration while using the same snapshot repository.

Statistics for snapshot retention can be retrieved using the <<slm-get-stats,Get Snapshot Lifecycle
Stats API>>:

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
GET /_slm/stats
--------------------------------------------------
// TEST[continued]

Which returns a response

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
  "retention_runs": 13, <1>
  "retention_failed": 0, <2>
  "retention_timed_out": 0, <3>
  "retention_deletion_time": "1.4s", <4>
  "retention_deletion_time_millis": 1404,
  "policy_stats": [
    {
      "policy": "daily-snapshots",
      "snapshots_taken": 1,
      "snapshots_failed": 1,
      "snapshots_deleted": 0, <5>
      "snapshot_deletion_failures": 0 <6>
    }
  ],
  "total_snapshots_taken": 1,
  "total_snapshots_failed": 1,
  "total_snapshots_deleted": 0, <7>
  "total_snapshot_deletion_failures": 0 <8>
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TESTRESPONSE[skip:this is not actually running retention]
<1> Number of times retention has been run
<2> Number of times retention failed while running
<3> Number of times retention hit the `slm.retention_duration` time limit and had to stop before deleting all eligible snapshots
<4> Total time spent deleting snapshots by the retention process
<5> Number of snapshots created by the "daily-snapshots" policy that have been deleted
<6> Number of snapshots that failed to be deleted
<7> Total number of snapshots deleted across all policies
<8> Total number of snapshot deletion failures across all policies