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@rodrigomadalozzo rodrigomadalozzo commented Jan 6, 2026

As a support engineer, I have the following suggestions based on my experience handling cases related to disk space and watermark issues - https://www.elastic.co/docs/troubleshoot/elasticsearch/fix-watermark-errors:

  1. Remove the unnecessary period before the comma.
  2. Add a new Context section with a clearer explanation of watermark levels, as the current page assumes readers already understand the differences between low, high, and flood-stage watermarks.
  3. Include a Common causes of watermark errors section outlining the most frequent reasons these issues occur, to help users prevent them.
  4. Add a Preventing watermark errors section with practical recommendations such as setting up disk usage monitoring alerts, optimizing shard sizes, and mainly, implement more restrictive ILM policies.

cc @stefnestor

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  1. Did you use a generative AI (GenAI) tool to assist in creating this contribution?
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My suggestiosn were: 

1 - remove the uneecessary period before the comma.
2 - added a new section `Context` with clearer Explanation of Watermark Levels since the page assumes the reader already understands the difference between low, high, and flood-stage watermarks.
3 - Added `Common causes of watermark errors` with the most common Causes of Watermark Errors. This would help users prevent the issue in the first place.
4 - Added `Preventing watermark errors` section with suggestions like setting up disk usage monitoring alerts, optimizing shard sizes, or using ILM proactively could be added.
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github-actions bot commented Jan 6, 2026

Vale Linting Results

Summary: 2 suggestions found

💡 Suggestions (2)
File Line Rule Message
troubleshoot/elasticsearch/fix-watermark-errors.md 32 Elastic.EmDashes Don't put a space before or after a dash.
troubleshoot/elasticsearch/fix-watermark-errors.md 62 Elastic.WordChoice Consider using 'refer to (if it's a document), view (if it's a UI element)' instead of 'See', unless the term is in the UI.

The Vale linter checks documentation changes against the Elastic Docs style guide.

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github-actions bot commented Jan 6, 2026

🔍 Preview links for changed docs

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Thank you for these improvements, they look really good! 🪴

I've left a few comments, mostly all around links syntax. Let me know if you need any help with that.

:::


## Context
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I think we can be a bit more specific with the subheading. Context is too generic. Perhaps something like:

Suggested change
## Context
## Disk-based shard allocation watermarks

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@rodrigomadalozzo "context" already exists implicitly in the first couple intro paragraphs. Perhaps we should consider merging/supplementing this content into that to avoid the duplication.

@yetanothertw yetanothertw added the Team:Admin Issues owned by the Admin Docs Team label Jan 6, 2026
Co-authored-by: Vlada Chirmicci <[email protected]>
* update related [ILM policy](../../manage-data/lifecycle/index-lifecycle-management.md) to push indices through to later [data tiers](../../manage-data/lifecycle/data-tiers.md)


## Preventing watermark errors
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@rodrigomadalozzo if you feel up for it, we might be able to do two KBs in one go. Supplementing the one you're doing, you could consider (not giving dive-in detail just referencing) the dangers of bad disk watermarks by adding a bullet point like

* {{es}} recommends using default watermark settings. Experts can override [the watermark thresholds and headroom](elasticsearch://reference/elasticsearch/configuration-reference/cluster-level-shard-allocation-routing-settings.md) but risk not giving enough disk for background processes such as force merge, not being right-sized to data ingestion rates vs ILM settings, and possibly `disk is full` errors if 100% disk is reached. 

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4 participants