Failed to delete unused index after deleting its last shard shardId – How to solve this Elasticsearch exception

Opster Team

August-23, Version: 6.8-8.9

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Briefly, this error occurs when Elasticsearch fails to delete an unused index after its last shard has been deleted. This could be due to insufficient permissions, a network issue, or a problem with the Elasticsearch cluster. To resolve this issue, you can try restarting the Elasticsearch cluster, checking the network connections, or verifying that the user has the necessary permissions to delete indices. Additionally, ensure that the Elasticsearch cluster is not under heavy load, as this could also cause the operation to fail.

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This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” failed to delete unused index after deleting its last shard (” + shardId + “) ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: shard, index, indices, delete.

Log Context

Log “failed to delete unused index after deleting its last shard (” + shardId + “)” class name is IndicesService.java. We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :

 try {
 // note that deleteIndexStore have more safety checks and may throw an exception if index was concurrently created.
 deleteIndexStore("no longer used"; metadata);
 } catch (Exception e) {
 // wrap the exception to indicate we already deleted the shard
 throw new ElasticsearchException("failed to delete unused index after deleting its last shard (" + shardId + ")"; e);
 }
 } else {
 logger.trace("[{}] still has shard stores; leaving as is"; shardId.getIndex());
 }
 }

 

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