Improvements for the Index basics overview page

deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/restrictions-known-problems.md

@@ -79,8 +79,8 @@
 * {{kib}} plugins are not supported.
 * {{es}} plugins, are not enabled by default for security purposes. Reach out to support if you would like to enable {{es}} plugins support on your account.
 * Some {{es}} plugins do not apply to {{ecloud}}. For example, you won’t ever need to change discovery, as {{ecloud}} handles how nodes discover one another.
 % * In {{es}} 5.0 and later, site plugins are no longer supported. This change does not affect the site plugins {{ecloud}} might provide out of the box, such as Kopf or Head, since these site plugins are serviced by our proxies and not {{es}} itself.
-% * In {{es}} 5.0 and later, site plugins such as Kopf and Paramedic are no longer provided. We recommend that you use our [cluster performance metrics](../../monitor/stack-monitoring.md), [X-Pack monitoring features](../../monitor/stack-monitoring.md) and Kibana’s (6.3+) [Index Management UI](/manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md#manage-indices) if you want more detailed information or perform index management actions.
+% * In {{es}} 5.0 and later, site plugins such as Kopf and Paramedic are no longer provided. We recommend that you use our [cluster performance metrics](../../monitor/stack-monitoring.md), [X-Pack monitoring features](../../monitor/stack-monitoring.md) and Kibana’s (6.3+) [Index Management UI](/manage-data/data-store/index-management.md#manage-indices) if you want more detailed information or perform index management actions.
 
 
 ## Watcher [ec-restrictions-watcher]

deploy-manage/monitor/orchestrators/ece-monitoring-ece-set-retention.md

@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
 
 1. In {{kib}}, go to **Index Management → Index Templates** and identify the template that applies to the data stream or indices whose retention you want to change. Refer to [Available index templates](#available-templates) for a list of the most common templates.
 
-2. Open the template’s contextual menu and select **Clone** to [create a new template](/manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md#index-management-manage-index-templates). When cloning the template:
+2. Open the template’s contextual menu and select **Clone** to [create a new template](/manage-data/data-store/index-management.md#index-management-manage-index-templates). When cloning the template:
 
     1. Assign a higher `priority` to the new template so it takes precedence over the default template.
     2. In the **Index settings** section, set `index.lifecycle.name` to the custom {{ilm-init}} policy that has the required retention settings.

deploy-manage/tools/snapshot-and-restore/restore-snapshot.md

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ This guide also provides tips for [restoring to another cluster](#restore-differ
 
 - You can only restore a snapshot to a running cluster with an elected [master node](/deploy-manage/distributed-architecture/clusters-nodes-shards/node-roles.md#master-node-role). The snapshot’s repository must be registered and available to the cluster.
 - The snapshot and cluster versions must be compatible. See [Snapshot compatibility](/deploy-manage/tools/snapshot-and-restore.md#snapshot-compatibility).
-- Before you restore a data stream, ensure the cluster contains a [matching index template](/manage-data/use-case-use-elasticsearch-to-manage-time-series-data.md#create-ts-index-template) with data stream enabled. To check, use [Kibana’s Index Management](/manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md#index-management-manage-index-templates) feature or the get index template API:
+- Before you restore a data stream, ensure the cluster contains a [matching index template](/manage-data/use-case-use-elasticsearch-to-manage-time-series-data.md#create-ts-index-template) with data stream enabled. To check, use [Kibana’s Index Management](/manage-data/data-store/index-management.md#index-management-manage-index-templates) feature or the get index template API:
 
   ```console
   GET _index_template/*?filter_path=index_templates.name,index_templates.index_template.index_patterns,index_templates.index_template.data_stream

explore-analyze/alerting/watcher/watcher-ui.md

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ To use Watcher in {{kib}}, you must have the built-in `kibana_admin` role and ei
 To manage roles, go to the **Roles** management page, or use the [role APIs](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/kibana/group/endpoint-roles). Watches are shared between all users with the same role.
 
 ::::{note}
-If you are creating a threshold watch, you must also have the `view_index_metadata` index privilege. See [Index management](/manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md#index-management) for detailed information.
+If you are creating a threshold watch, you must also have the `view_index_metadata` index privilege. See [Index management](/manage-data/data-store/index-management.md) for detailed information.
 ::::
 
 ## Create a threshold alert [watcher-create-threshold-alert]

manage-data/data-store.md

@@ -12,10 +12,33 @@
 
 [{{es}}](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/) is a distributed search and analytics engine, scalable data store, and vector database built on Apache Lucene.
 
-The documentation in this section details how {{es}} works as a _data store_ starting with the fundamental unit of storage in Elasticsearch: the index. An index is a collection of documents uniquely identified by a name or an alias. Read more in [Index basics](/manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md).
 
-Then, learn how these documents and the fields they contain are stored and indexed in [Mapping](/manage-data/data-store/mapping.md), and how unstructured text is converted into a structured format that’s optimized for search in [Text analysis](/manage-data/data-store/text-analysis.md).
+This section describes the {{es}} data storage model, from indices as the foundational unit to mappings, templates, and higher-level abstractions that define data organization and access.
 
-You can also read more about working with {{es}} as a data store including how to use [index templates](/manage-data/data-store/templates.md) to tell {{es}} how to configure an index when it is created, how to use [aliases](/manage-data/data-store/aliases.md) to point to multiple indices, and how to use the [command line to manage data](/manage-data/data-store/manage-data-from-the-command-line.md) stored in {{es}}.
+## Understand data storage
 
-If your use case involves working with continuous streams of time series data, you can consider using a [data stream](./data-store/data-streams.md). These are optimally suited for storing append-only data. You can access the data through a single, named resource, while {{es}} stores it in a series of hidden, auto-generated backing indices.
+Learn about the core storage concepts in {{es}}.
+
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md): Learn about index fundamentals, including index naming and aliases, document structure, metadata fields, and mappings.
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/data-streams.md): Learn when to use data streams for timestamped and append-only time series data, like logs, events, or metrics. You work with one stream name while {{es}} manages multiple backing indices behind the scenes.
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/near-real-time-search.md): Understand how {{es}} makes newly indexed data searchable within seconds of indexing.
+
+## Configure how data is stored
+
+Control how {{es}} indexes, maps, and analyzes your data.
+
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/mapping.md): Define how documents and their fields are stored and indexed. Choose between dynamic mapping for automatic field detection and explicit mapping for full control over field types and indexing behavior.
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/text-analysis.md): Configure how unstructured text is converted into a structured format optimized for full-text search, including tokenization, normalization, and custom analyzers.
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/templates.md): Define reusable index configurations including settings, mappings, and aliases that are automatically applied when new indices or data streams are created.
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/aliases.md): Create named references that point to one or more indices or data streams, enabling zero-downtime reindexing and simplified query targeting.
+
+## Manage data
+
+Work with your indices and data using the {{kib}} UI or the {{es}} REST API.
+
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/index-management.md): Use {{kib}}'s **Index Management** page to view and manage your indices, data streams, templates, component templates, and enrich policies.
+* [](/manage-data/data-store/manage-data-from-the-command-line.md): Index, update, retrieve, search, and delete documents using curl and the {{es}} REST API.
+
+::::{tip}
+If you manage append-only timestamped data with data streams, use [Data lifecycle](/manage-data/lifecycle.md) to plan retention and performance over time.
+::::

manage-data/data-store/data-streams/manage-data-stream.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ products:
   - id: cloud-serverless
 ---
 
-# Manage a data stream [index-management-manage-data-streams]
+# Manage a data stream in {{kib}} [index-management-manage-data-streams]
 
 Investigate your data streams and address lifecycle management needs in the **Data Streams** view.
 
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ In {{es-serverless}}, indices matching the `logs-*-*` pattern use the logsDB ind
 
 * To view more information about a data stream, such as its generation or its current index lifecycle policy, click the stream’s name. From this view, you can navigate to **Discover** to further explore data within the data stream.
 * To view information about the stream’s backing indices, click the number in the **Indices** column.
-* To modify the data retention value, select a data stream, open the **Manage**  menu, and click **Edit data retention**.
+* A value in the **Data retention** column indicates that the data stream is managed by a data stream lifecycle policy. This value is the time period for which your data is guaranteed to be stored. Data older than this period can be deleted by {{es}} at a later time.
+* To modify the data retention value, select a data stream, open the **Manage**  menu, and click **Edit data retention**. On {{stack}}, this action is only available if your data stream is managed by a [data stream lifecycle](/manage-data/lifecycle/data-stream.md).
 
 ## Manage data streams on the Streams page [manage-data-streams-with-streams]
 ```{applies_to}