Improvements for the Index basics overview page

[yetanothertw]

Summary

Fixes #5221

Problem statement

At present the Index basics page includes a collection of content types. It performs the following tasks:

• Defines what an index is; explains documents, metadata, mappings (Conceptual overview)
• Introduces the Index Management UI and lists required permissions (How-to)
• Includes screenshots + instructions for the Indices view (stack & serverless variants) (How-to)
• Includes screenshots + instructions for data streams, index templates views (How-to)
• Includes a step-by-step tutorial: create an index template (Tutorial)
• Includes screenshots + instructions for component templates and enrich policies (How-to)

Another problematic page is the parent Data store overview page that needs to be edited in tandem as it should be providing more wayfinding guidance for the other related topics in this section (templates, mappings, aliases, data streams, and so on).

There is also a significant amount of duplication of information happening across the entire section (and an additional layer of duplication when compared to the Data lifecycle section). For example, the Manage data streams section (lines 77-99) duplicates data-streams/manage-data-stream.md.
This makes content drift more likely to occur over time. The manage-data-stream.md page is more detailed and better-placed. The section here (Index management) is a condensed copy.
Another example of duplication: component template definition appears three times on this page, and the ]dedicated templates page](https://www.elastic.co/docs/manage-data/data-store/templates) does it all over again.
The section about enrich policies repeats the same pattern. Lines 250-256 re-define what an enrich policy contains (policy type, source indices, match fields, enrich fields, query). This is already covered on the dedicated enrich page that is linked in the first line of the section.

Changes

WIP

• Updated the Index basics page to be more user-focused and to serve one purpose: introduction to indices

• Updated the The Elasticsearch data store parent page to add an overview/wayfinding layer

• Moved all the index management info into a separate page: Index management (which has its own problems including massive amounts of duplication and structural problems).

Issues with the Index management section

This page is really long and difficult to scan, all while trying to be three things at once:

• A UI tour of the Index Management feature in Kibana
• A conceptual explainer for data streams, index templates, component templates, and enrich policies
• A tutorial for creating an index template via the wizard

This violates progressive disclosure. A user arriving at this page expecting to learn how to use the Index Management UI instead gets re-taught concepts that are already covered in depth on dedicated pages, and then pulled into a step-by-step tutorial that takes up 42% of the page (lines 117-233).

Generative AI disclosure

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

• Yes
• No

Used Claude 4.6 Opus High to check and update links

[github-actions]

Vale Linting Results

Summary: 5 warnings, 9 suggestions found

⚠️ Warnings (5)

File	Line	Rule	Message
deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/restrictions-known-problems.md	83	Elastic.Spelling	'Kopf' is a possible misspelling.
manage-data/data-store/templates.md	170	Elastic.Spelling	'api' is a possible misspelling.
manage-data/data-store/templates.md	264	Elastic.Spelling	'api' is a possible misspelling.
manage-data/lifecycle/index-lifecycle-management/tutorial-general-content-with-data-streams.md	204	Elastic.Spelling	'api' is a possible misspelling.
solutions/observability/apm/explore-data-in-elasticsearch.md	21	Elastic.Latinisms	Latin terms and abbreviations are a common source of confusion. Use 'using' instead of 'via'.

💡 Suggestions (9)

File	Line	Rule	Message
deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/restrictions-known-problems.md	82	Elastic.Wordiness	Consider using 'because' instead of 'since'.
deploy-manage/monitor/orchestrators/ece-monitoring-ece-set-retention.md	48	Elastic.Clone	Use Clone only when referring to cloning a GitHub repository or creating a copy that is linked to the original. Often confused with 'copy' and 'duplicate'.
manage-data/data-store.md	16	Elastic.Versions	Use 'and later' instead of 'and higher' when referring to versions.
manage-data/data-store/index-management.md	126	Elastic.WordChoice	Consider using 'run, start' instead of 'execute', unless the term is in the UI.
manage-data/data-store/templates.md	27	Elastic.WordChoice	Consider using 'can, might' instead of 'may', unless the term is in the UI.
manage-data/data-store/templates/index-template-management.md	15	Elastic.Wordiness	Consider using 'all' instead of 'all of '.
manage-data/ingest/transform-enrich/set-up-an-enrich-processor.md	62	Elastic.WordChoice	Consider using 'run, start' instead of 'Execute', unless the term is in the UI.
manage-data/ingest/transform-enrich/set-up-an-enrich-processor.md	64	Elastic.WordChoice	Consider using 'run, start' instead of 'execute', unless the term is in the UI.
troubleshoot/observability/troubleshoot-mapping-issues.md	32	Elastic.Wordiness	Consider using 'remove' instead of 'eliminate'.

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[github-actions]

🔍 Preview links for changed docs

• manage-data/data-store/index-management.md
• deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/restrictions-known-problems.md
• deploy-manage/monitor/orchestrators/ece-monitoring-ece-set-retention.md
• deploy-manage/tools/snapshot-and-restore/restore-snapshot.md
• explore-analyze/alerting/watcher/watcher-ui.md
• manage-data/data-store.md
• manage-data/data-store/data-streams/manage-data-stream.md
• manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md
• manage-data/data-store/templates.md
• manage-data/data-store/templates/index-template-management.md

More links …

• manage-data/ingest/transform-enrich/ingest-pipelines.md
• manage-data/ingest/transform-enrich/set-up-an-enrich-processor.md
• manage-data/lifecycle/index-lifecycle-management.md
• manage-data/lifecycle/index-lifecycle-management/index-management-in-kibana.md
• manage-data/lifecycle/index-lifecycle-management/tutorial-general-content-with-data-streams.md
• solutions/observability/apm/explore-data-in-elasticsearch.md
• solutions/observability/apm/reduce-storage.md
• solutions/observability/synthetics/manage-data-retention.md
• troubleshoot/observability/troubleshoot-mapping-issues.md

[kilfoyle]

I like the idea of breaking this management content off into a separate page. 👍