Delete Elasticsearch indices using wildcard expression.

List indices.

$ curl -u elastic:elastic "https://192.168.8.153:9200/_cat/indices/nginx*?v"

health status index                 uuid                   pri rep docs.count docs.deleted store.size pri.store.size
green  open   nginx-logs-2023-07-25 hbcUxgMGTrS5gZ08TV6RaA   1   1          0            0       450b           225b
green  open   nginx-logs-2023-07-24 YF8XoGKHTUa2uT_dIN2qMg   1   1          0            0       450b           225b
green  open   nginx-logs-2023-07-23 Il9uZxM-RMm5g7rpynG8bg   1   1          0            0       450b           225b
green  open   nginx-logs-2023-07-22 MpEyNWVQSL-NrtCB8ACIpQ   1   1          0            0       450b           225b

Try to delete multiple indices using wildcard expression.

$ curl -X DELETE -u elastic:elastic  "https://192.168.8.153:9200/nginx*?pretty"

{
  "error" : {
    "root_cause" : [
      {
        "type" : "illegal_argument_exception",
        "reason" : "Wildcard expressions or all indices are not allowed"
      }
    ],
    "type" : "illegal_argument_exception",
    "reason" : "Wildcard expressions or all indices are not allowed"
  },
  "status" : 400
}

Allow using wildcards (including _all keyword) to delete multiple indices.

$ curl -X PUT  -u elastic:elastic "https://192.168.8.153:9200/_cluster/settings?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"persistent": {"action.destructive_requires_name":false}}'
{
  "acknowledged" : true,
  "persistent" : {
    "action" : {
      "destructive_requires_name" : "false"
    }
  },
  "transient" : { }
}

{
  "acknowledged" : true,
  "persistent" : {
    "cluster" : {
      "routing" : {
        "allocation" : {
          "enable" : "primaries"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "transient" : { }
}

Verify persistent settings.

$ curl -s -u elastic:elastic "https://192.168.8.153:9200/_cluster/settings?include_defaults=true"| jq .persistent

{
  "action": {
    "destructive_requires_name": "false"
  }
}

Delete multiple indices using wildcard expression.

$ curl -X DELETE -u elastic:elastic  "https://192.168.8.153:9200/nginx*?pretty"

{
  "acknowledged" : true
}

List indices.

$ curl -s -u elastic:elastic "https://192.168.8.153:9200/_cat/indices/nginx*?format=json" | jq .

[]
ko-fi