Briefly, this error occurs when Elasticsearch tries to delete an old snapshot due to retention policy but fails. This could be due to insufficient permissions, a locked file, or a network issue. To resolve this, ensure that Elasticsearch has the necessary permissions to delete snapshots. If a file is locked, unlock it or restart the Elasticsearch service. If it’s a network issue, check the connection to the snapshot repository. Also, verify the snapshot retention policy to ensure it’s correctly configured.
This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” [{}] snapshot retention deleting snapshot [{}] ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: plugin, snapshot.
Log Context
Log “[{}] snapshot retention deleting snapshot [{}]” classname is SnapshotRetentionTask.java.
We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
String repo;
SnapshotId snapshot;
SnapshotLifecycleStats slmStats;
ActionListener listener
) {
logger.info("[{}] snapshot retention deleting snapshot [{}]"; repo; snapshot);
// don't time out on this request to not produce failed SLM runs in case of a temporarily slow master node
client.admin()
.cluster()
.prepareDeleteSnapshot(repo; snapshot.getName())
.setMasterNodeTimeout(TimeValue.MAX_VALUE)
