How to change the retention policies for _internal indexes.

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Updated:September 29, 2026
Document ID:SPLK045308

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Applicability

Splunk Enterprise Splunk Cloud

Description

This article applies when the retention policies for _internal indexes need to be modified.


Note: Splunk Cloud Platform includes several internal indexes that are named starting with an underscore (_). The data retention period for these internal indexes cannot be modified.

Splunk Cloud Documentation

 

 


 


Resolution

In order to modify the retention policies for _internal indexes(_audit, _introspection, _metrics, etc), it's required to make changes to the indexes.conf configuration file, specifically, under the stanza of each index.
 

[_audit]
maxTotalDataSizeMB=<add_desired_value_in_MB>
frozenTimePeriodInSecs=<add_desired_value_in_secs>


Note: This change doesn't require a restart.

Splunk Documentation


Manage data retention settings

Managing Indexers and Clusters of Indexers

Revision History

Revision Publish Date Comments
1.0
29-Sep-2026
Initial Release

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