Getting Data In

How often does Splunk check to apply retention policy?

hulahoop
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

If a size- or time-based retention policy is set via maxTotalDataSizeMB or frozenTimePeriodInSecs in indexes.conf, how often does Splunk check the datastore to see if either of these conditions has been met? Splunk checks on startup/restart, then how often in between? Is this interval tunable? I didn't see anything in indexes.conf.spec.

Tags (1)
1 Solution

hulahoop
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

I didn't look close enough. Splunk checks every 60 seconds by default. From indexes.conf.spec:

rotatePeriodInSecs = <integer>
* Frequency (in seconds) to check if a new hot DB needs to be created.
* Also the frequency to check if there are any cold DBs that need to be frozen.
* Defaults to 60.

View solution in original post

hulahoop
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

I didn't look close enough. Splunk checks every 60 seconds by default. From indexes.conf.spec:

rotatePeriodInSecs = <integer>
* Frequency (in seconds) to check if a new hot DB needs to be created.
* Also the frequency to check if there are any cold DBs that need to be frozen.
* Defaults to 60.

jrodman
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

In 3.x it was every few minutes. I'll have to do some code Splunking to find the current information.

Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Painting a Clearer Picture: Creating Cross-Domain Visibility with AI Canvas

    Thursday, June 25, 2026  |  11AM PDT / 2PM EDT  Duration: 1 Hour (Includes live Q&A) Register to ...

Analytics Workspace deprecation

As of Splunk Cloud Platform 10.4.2604 and Splunk Enterprise 10.4, Analytics Workspace is now deprecated. ...

Splunk Developer Day Recap: Building, Publishing, and Growing on the Splunk Platform

Splunk Developer Day brought the Splunk developer community together for a practical look at what it means to ...