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Delete Index API

Introduced 1.0

The delete index API operation deletes one or more indexes from your cluster.

Warning: Deleting an index is a permanent operation. All data in the index is lost and cannot be recovered. Always verify that you have backups or that the data is no longer needed before deleting an index.

Endpoints

DELETE /{index}

Path parameters

The following table lists the available path parameters.

Parameter Required Data type Description
index Required String The name of the index to delete. You can specify a single index name, a comma-separated list of index names, or a wildcard expression. Wildcard expressions (*) match only open, concrete indexes. You cannot delete an index using an alias. To delete all indexes, use _all or *. To prevent accidental deletion of all indexes using _all or wildcard expressions, set the action.destructive_requires_name cluster setting to true.

Query parameters

The following table lists the available query parameters. All query parameters are optional.

Parameter Data type Description Default
allow_no_indices Boolean Specifies whether to ignore wildcards that do not match any indexes. If false, the request returns an error when wildcards do not match any indexes. true
expand_wildcards String Specifies the types of indexes to which wildcard expressions can expand. Supports comma-separated values. Valid values are:
- all: Match all indexes, including hidden indexes.
- open: Match open indexes.
- closed: Match closed indexes.
- hidden: Match hidden indexes. Must be combined with open, closed, or both.
- none: Do not accept wildcard expressions.		 open
ignore_unavailable Boolean Specifies whether to ignore indexes that are unavailable (missing or closed). If true, missing or closed indexes are not included in the response. false
cluster_manager_timeout String The amount of time to wait for a connection to the cluster manager node. 30s
timeout String The amount of time to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error. 30s

Example: Deleting a single index

The following example request deletes a single index named sample-index:

DELETE /sample-index
response = client.indices.delete(
  index = "sample-index"
)

Example: Deleting multiple indexes

The following example request deletes multiple indexes by specifying them in a comma-separated list:

DELETE /logs-2024-01,logs-2024-02,logs-2024-03
response = client.indices.delete(
  index = "logs-2024-01,logs-2024-02,logs-2024-03"
)

Example: Deleting indexes using wildcard patterns

The following example request deletes all indexes that match the pattern logs-2024-*:

DELETE /logs-2024-*
response = client.indices.delete(
  index = "logs-2024-*"
)

Example: Deleting all indexes

Warning: The following operation is extremely destructive and will delete all indexes in your cluster. Use with extreme caution and only in development or testing environments.

The following example request deletes all indexes in the cluster:

DELETE /*
response = client.indices.delete(
  index = "*"
)

To prevent accidental deletion of all indexes, you can set the action.destructive_requires_name cluster setting to true. When this setting is enabled, you must specify explicit index names and cannot use _all or wildcard patterns to delete all indexes. For more information, see Index settings.

Example response

OpenSearch returns the following response when the delete operation is successful:

{
  "acknowledged": true
}

Response body fields

The following table lists all response body fields.

Field Data type Description
acknowledged Boolean Indicates whether the delete request was received by the cluster. A value of true means the indexes were successfully deleted.
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