# Convert\_index\_to\_remote issue with datastreams **URL:** \ **Category:** Index Management\ **Tags:** configure, index-management\ **Created:** [March 16, 2026, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/convert-index-to-remote-issue-with-datastreams/27929 "2026-03-16T20:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zuuz94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8c91f0/32.png) [@zuuz94](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/zuuz94)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/convert-index-to-remote-issue-with-datastreams/27929/1 "2026-03-16T20:09:46Z")
**Versions** (relevant - OpenSearch/Dashboard/Server OS/Browser): OpenSearch 3.5 **Describe the issue** : I have ISM policy that creates searchable snapshot. Flow: index fill up with data → rollover → snapshot action → convert\_index\_to\_remote action → delete index Above flow leaves me with remote\_\* indexes. I want to manage them. What I thought of doing was to create separate ISM policy that will pick up remote\_ indexes and delete them after some time. Then I will have SM policy to delete old snapshots from S3. This way I believe I can manage the whole cycle. I remove data from cluster and store in S3 and after some time automatically I delete ‘linked’ indexes and clean-up s3. My problem is: My restored indexes are not picked-up by ISM policy… I believe the problem is: ISM policy takes a snapshot of a index that is part of datastream and later when restore takes place, we restore only index, but not a datastream (however the index has a mapping that suggests it’s a part of datastream!). Is it possible that plugin does not attach the ISM policy because it cannot find corresponding datastream? If I do manual snapshot providing datastream name and then do restore, then datastream is also restored and restored index has ISM policy attached. I completely understand that ISM policy should snapshot/restore only one index. However what can I do in my scenario? The only way that I can think of is to create some kind of script/cronjob that will look for remote\* indexes and attach policy to them. But it seems an ugly workaround. I’ve also tried to created index template for remote\* pattern and try to attach ism policy via settings: ```auto PUT _index_template/remote_add_ism { "index_patterns": ["remote*"], "priority": 600, "template": { "settings": { "index.opendistro.index_state_management.policy_id": "remote-index", "index.plugins.index_state_management.policy_id": "remote-index" } } } ``` But it did not work… I’d really appreciate some feedback. Is it possible to accomplish what I need? Or is there some flaw in my way of thinking? Or is there other way to clean up after searchable snapshot? 🙂 Thanks in advance for any replay! **Configuration** : **Relevant Logs or Screenshots** : ---
**Author:** ![Anthony](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/anthony/32/9939_2.png) [@Anthony](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/Anthony)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 11:31am UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/convert-index-to-remote-issue-with-datastreams/27929/2 "2026-03-18T11:31:15Z")
@zuuz94 The remote index has `index.hidden: true` inherited from the original data stream backing index. The coordinator explicitly skips hidden non-data-stream indices, see code block [here](https://github.com/opensearch-project/index-management/blob/2dd33355ce1976c9bb28b9acf511136f091ca26c/src/main/kotlin/org/opensearch/indexmanagement/indexstatemanagement/ManagedIndexCoordinator.kt#L350) I would recommend to raise an issue for this [here](https://github.com/opensearch-project/index-management/issues), as the restore request would probably need to override `index.hidden: false` in order for ISM to see this index. Until such time the only workaround seems to be to manually attach the policy after restore. Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Anthony](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/anthony/32/9939_2.png) [@Anthony](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/Anthony)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 11:40am UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/convert-index-to-remote-issue-with-datastreams/27929/3 "2026-03-18T11:40:28Z")
I would also mention issue [1426](https://github.com/opensearch-project/index-management/issues/1426), this will change the name and deal with `indexName.startsWith(".")` part, see code snippet [here](https://github.com/opensearch-project/index-management/blob/2dd33355ce1976c9bb28b9acf511136f091ca26c/src/main/kotlin/org/opensearch/indexmanagement/indexstatemanagement/ManagedIndexCoordinator.kt#L347C87-L347C111). ---
**Author:** ![zuuz94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8c91f0/32.png) [@zuuz94](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/zuuz94)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 12:00pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/convert-index-to-remote-issue-with-datastreams/27929/4 "2026-03-18T12:00:17Z")
Cool! Thank you very much for the response @Anthony ! Really appreciate that you pushed me in right direction 🙂 If the issue here is this _hidden_ parameter then I believe this [PR](https://github.com/opensearch-project/index-management/pull/1527) should solve my problems. When I’d be able to ignore this setting it while doing the restore - then the ISM policy should be applied. Thank you very much! I’ll validate it by triggering restore manually - but it looks very promising 🙂 [update] I’ve tested manually restore with ignore index settings - and it worked. ISM picked up my new remote index. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/mauve_hedgehog/original/2X/3/33547ea01a5b12dcca2958411d3edd97ae2ea8c1.png) [@system](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 12:00pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/convert-index-to-remote-issue-with-datastreams/27929/5 "2026-05-17T12:00:57Z")
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