fix(index): clean up indicies DB rows on all physical delete paths — Fixes #35306

Three code paths physically deleted indices without removing the
corresponding row from the `indicies` table, leaving stale DB entries
that could cause startup failures or silent inconsistencies:

- `ContentletIndexAPIImpl.delete()`: now calls
  `versionedIndicesAPI.removeByIndexName()` after a successful physical
  delete (covers the REST endpoint `DELETE /api/v1/esindex/{name}`).

- `IndexAjaxAction.deleteIndex()`: was bypassing `ContentletIndexAPI`
  and going straight to `ESIndexAPI.delete()`. Routed through
  `ContentletIndexAPI.delete()` so DB cleanup is included.

- `DeleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndicesJob`: `ESIndexAPI
  .deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices()` now returns the list of
  physically deleted index names (`List<String>` instead of `void`).
  The job iterates that list and calls
  `VersionedIndicesAPI.removeByIndexName()` for each entry.
  `IndexAPI`, `IndexAPIImpl`, and `OSIndexAPIImpl` updated accordingly.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: fabrizzio-dotCMS

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/elasticsearch/business/ContentletIndexAPIImpl.java

@@ -1285,8 +1285,17 @@ private void logSwitchover(final IndiciesInfo oldInfo, final String luckyServer)
 
     }
 
-    public boolean delete(String indexName) {
-        return indexAPI.delete(indexName);
+    public boolean delete(final String indexName) {
+        final boolean deleted = indexAPI.delete(indexName);
+        if (deleted) {
+            try {
+                versionedIndicesAPI.removeByIndexName(indexName);
+            } catch (DotDataException e) {
+                Logger.error(this, "Index [" + indexName + "] was physically deleted but the " +
+                        "indices DB row could not be removed: " + e.getMessage(), e);
+            }
+        }
+        return deleted;
     }
 
     public boolean optimize(List<String> indexNames) {

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/elasticsearch/business/ESIndexAPI.java

@@ -276,7 +276,8 @@ public boolean deleteMultiple(String...indexNames) {
 	 * @param inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep indicates how many live/working sets to keep
 	 */
 
-	public void deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(final int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep) {
+	@Override
+	public List<String> deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(final int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep) {
 		// get list of indices ordered by created desc and in sets of live/working
 		List<String> indices = getLiveWorkingIndicesSortedByCreationDateDesc();
 
@@ -309,6 +310,7 @@ public void deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(final int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsTo
 					+ String.join(",", indicesToRemove));
 		}
 
+		return List.copyOf(indicesToRemove);
 	}
 
 	private void deleteLiveWorkingSetFromList(List<String> indicesToRemove, String index, String indexTimestamp) {

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/index/IndexAPI.java

@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ public String getStatus() {
      *
      * @param inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep number of live/working sets to keep
      */
-    void deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep);
+    List<String> deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep);
 
     /**
      * Returns a set of all managed indices.

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/index/IndexAPIImpl.java

@@ -341,8 +341,8 @@ public boolean deleteMultiple(final String... indexNames) {
     }
 
     @Override
-    public void deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(final int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep) {
-        router.write(impl -> impl.deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep));
+    public List<String> deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(final int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep) {
+        return router.writeReturning(impl -> impl.deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep));
     }
 
     @Override

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/index/IndicesFactory.java

@@ -127,4 +127,14 @@ public interface IndicesFactory {
     void insertIndexIfPresent(String indexName, String indexType,
             String version) throws DotDataException;
 
+    /**
+     * Removes the {@code indicies} table row for the given index name.
+     * Handles both plain and {@code os::}-prefixed forms of the name so that
+     * callers do not need to know how the name is stored in the database.
+     *
+     * @param indexName the physical index name (with or without vendor tag)
+     * @throws DotDataException if the name is blank or a SQL error occurs
+     */
+    void removeByIndexName(String indexName) throws DotDataException;
+
 }

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/index/IndicesFactoryImpl.java

@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ public class IndicesFactoryImpl implements IndicesFactory {
         "SELECT COUNT(*) as count FROM indicies WHERE index_version = ? AND index_version IS NOT NULL";
     private static final String COUNT_INDICES_BY_VERSION_SQL =
         "SELECT COUNT(*) as count FROM indicies WHERE index_version = ? AND index_version IS NOT NULL";
+    private static final String DELETE_INDEX_BY_NAME_SQL =
+        "DELETE FROM indicies WHERE index_name = ? OR index_name = ?";
 
     @Override
     public Optional<VersionedIndices> loadIndices(String version) throws DotDataException {
@@ -360,6 +362,24 @@ public void insertIndexIfPresent(String indexName, String indexType, String vers
         }
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public void removeByIndexName(final String indexName) throws DotDataException {
+        if (!UtilMethods.isSet(indexName)) {
+            throw new DotDataException("Index name cannot be null or empty");
+        }
+        // Always work from the bare name so we can reliably compute both DB forms
+        final String bareName   = IndexTag.strip(indexName);
+        final String taggedName = IndexTag.OS.tag(bareName);
+        try {
+            final DotConnect dotConnect = new DotConnect();
+            final int deleted = dotConnect.executeUpdate(DELETE_INDEX_BY_NAME_SQL, bareName, taggedName);
+            Logger.info(this, "Removed " + deleted + " row(s) from indicies for index: " + bareName);
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            Logger.error(this, "Failed to remove indicies row for index: " + bareName, e);
+            throw new DotDataException("Failed to remove indicies row for index: " + bareName, e);
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Builds a VersionedIndicesInfo from legacy non-versioned database results.
      * Expects results to have columns: index_name, index_type (no index_version)

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/index/VersionedIndicesAPI.java

@@ -104,6 +104,16 @@ public interface VersionedIndicesAPI {
      */
     Optional<VersionedIndices> loadDefaultVersionedIndices() throws DotDataException;
 
+    /**
+     * Removes the {@code indicies} table row for the given index name.
+     * Handles both plain and {@code os::}-prefixed forms of the name so that
+     * callers do not need to know how the name is stored in the database.
+     *
+     * @param indexName the physical index name (with or without vendor tag)
+     * @throws DotDataException if the name is blank or a SQL error occurs
+     */
+    void removeByIndexName(String indexName) throws DotDataException;
+
     /**
      * Clears all cached indices data.
      * This should be called when indices are modified outside of this API

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/index/VersionedIndicesAPIImpl.java

@@ -226,6 +226,23 @@ public Optional<VersionedIndices> loadDefaultVersionedIndices() throws DotDataEx
         return loadIndices(VersionedIndices.OPENSEARCH_3X);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    @WrapInTransaction
+    @Override
+    public void removeByIndexName(final String indexName) throws DotDataException {
+        Logger.debug(this, "Removing indices row for index: " + indexName);
+        indicesFactory.removeByIndexName(indexName);
+        // Flush all index-related caches so no stale names survive the deletion:
+        // 1. VersionedIndicesCache — our own versioned-index cache
+        cache.clearCache();
+        // 2. IndiciesCache — legacy (ES, non-versioned) index cache used by IndiciesFactory
+        CacheLocator.getIndiciesCache().clearCache();
+        // 3. ESQueryCache — cached search queries that may reference the deleted index name
+        CacheLocator.getESQueryCache().clearCache();
+    }
+
     /**
      * {@inheritDoc}
      */

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/content/index/opensearch/OSIndexAPIImpl.java

@@ -441,9 +441,10 @@ public void updateReplicas(String indexName, int replicas) throws DotDataExcepti
     }
 
     @Override
-    public void deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep) {
+    public List<String> deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices(int inactiveLiveWorkingSetsToKeep) {
         Logger.info(this.getClass(),
             "deleteInactiveLiveWorkingIndices not yet implemented for OpenSearch");
+        return List.of();
     }
 
     // =========================================================================

dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotmarketing/portlets/cmsmaintenance/ajax/IndexAjaxAction.java

@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ public void deleteIndex(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response
 		Map<String, String> map = getURIParams();
 		String indexName = indexHelper.getIndexNameOrAlias(map,"indexName","indexAlias",this.indexAPI);
 		if(UtilMethods.isSet(indexName))
-		    APILocator.getESIndexAPI().delete(indexName);
+		    APILocator.getContentletIndexAPI().delete(indexName);
 	}
 
 	public void activateIndex(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException, DotDataException {