Briefly, this error occurs when Elasticsearch begins the process of deleting old snapshots based on the retention policy set. It’s not an error but an informational message indicating that the snapshot lifecycle management (SLM) policy is working as expected. If you don’t want to delete old snapshots, you can modify the SLM policy to extend the retention period or disable snapshot deletion. Alternatively, if you’re seeing this message too frequently, you may need to adjust the frequency of snapshot creation or the logging level.
This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” starting snapshot retention deletion for [{}] snapshots ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: plugin, snapshot.
Log Context
Log “starting snapshot retention deletion for [{}] snapshots” classname is SnapshotRetentionTask.java.
We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
listener.onResponse(null);
logger.debug("no snapshots are eligible for deletion");
return;
}
logger.info("starting snapshot retention deletion for [{}] snapshots"; count);
long startTime = nowNanoSupplier.getAsLong();
final AtomicInteger deleted = new AtomicInteger(0);
final AtomicInteger failed = new AtomicInteger(0);
final CountDownActionListener allDeletesListener = new CountDownActionListener(
snapshotsToDelete.size();
