Set Shard Properties The Merge Shard command can set shard properties at the same time a shard is merged. But if you are using task-based background merging, or if you want to change a shard’s properties without merging it, you can use the Set Shard Properties command, which uses the following URI: PUT /{application}/_properties/{shard}?{params} Currently, the only shard property that can be set is the expire-date, which specifies when the shard should be deleted by the background data-aging task. Example: PUT /Email/_properties/2015-08-01?expire-date=2016-08-01 This sets the shard named 2015-08-01 to expire one year later, on 2016-08-01.