metricbeat.reference.yml contradict the official documentation

[ker2x]

In metricbeat.reference.yml, the documentations says :

# Disable the check for an existing lifecycle policy. The default is true. If
# you disable this check, set setup.ilm.overwrite: true so the lifecycle policy
# can be installed.
#setup.ilm.check_exists: true

It is misleading and imply that the ilm policy can be installed even if check_exist is false.
But this is not the case (tested on 8.4.2) and the official documentation agree.

A correct comment would be (shortened copy/paste from the official doc):

# Disable the check for an existing lifecycle policy. The default is true. 
# If you set this option to false, lifecycle policy will not be installed, 
# even if setup.ilm.overwrite is set to true.
#setup.ilm.check_exists: true

If setup.ilm.check_exists is set to false, the ILM policy is silently ignored.

• Link to the official documentation : https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/master/ilm.html
• I commited a change in a fork : 98399a8

I can create a pull request if you want.
Or a contributor can just modify the 4 line.
the PR process is needlessly complicated for such a non-functional (but important) modification.

hugs

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/elastic-agent-data-plane (Team:Elastic-Agent-Data-Plane)

[botelastic]

Hi!
We just realized that we haven't looked into this issue in a while. We're sorry!

We're labeling this issue as Stale to make it hit our filters and make sure we get back to it as soon as possible. In the meantime, it'd be extremely helpful if you could take a look at it as well and confirm its relevance. A simple comment with a nice emoji will be enough :+1.
Thank you for your contribution!

[ker2x]

i rechecked the official documentation and it still contradict the comment in the yml

[belimawr]

@ker2x here is the PR: #37430

Thanks for the help!