diff --git a/salt/elasticsearch/template.map.jinja b/salt/elasticsearch/template.map.jinja
index 7acb3eb87..15481ee4c 100644
--- a/salt/elasticsearch/template.map.jinja
+++ b/salt/elasticsearch/template.map.jinja
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 {% import_yaml 'elasticsearch/defaults.yaml' as ELASTICSEARCHDEFAULTS %}
 {% set DEFAULT_GLOBAL_OVERRIDES = ELASTICSEARCHDEFAULTS.elasticsearch.index_settings.pop('global_overrides') %}
-{% set DATA_RETENTION_METHOD = salt['pillar.get']('elasticsearch:data_retention_method', ELASTICSEARCHDEFAULTS.elasticsearch.get('data_retention_method', 'ILM')) %}
+{% set DATA_RETENTION_METHOD = salt['pillar.get']('elasticsearch:data_retention_method', ELASTICSEARCHDEFAULTS.elasticsearch.data_retention_method) %}
 
 {% set PILLAR_GLOBAL_OVERRIDES = {} %}
 {% set ES_INDEX_PILLAR = salt['pillar.get']('elasticsearch:index_settings', {}) %}
diff --git a/salt/elasticsearch/tools/sbin_jinja/so-elasticsearch-dlm-apply b/salt/elasticsearch/tools/sbin_jinja/so-elasticsearch-dlm-apply
index af761973c..e25e07223 100644
--- a/salt/elasticsearch/tools/sbin_jinja/so-elasticsearch-dlm-apply
+++ b/salt/elasticsearch/tools/sbin_jinja/so-elasticsearch-dlm-apply
@@ -6,9 +6,8 @@
 
 . /usr/sbin/so-common
 
-{%- import_yaml 'elasticsearch/defaults.yaml' as ELASTICSEARCHDEFAULTS %}
-
-{%- set DATA_RETENTION_METHOD = salt['pillar.get']('elasticsearch:data_retention_method', ELASTICSEARCHDEFAULTS.elasticsearch.get('data_retention_method', 'ILM')) %}
+{%   from 'elasticsearch/config.map.jinja' import ELASTICSEARCHMERGED %}
+{%- set DATA_RETENTION_METHOD = ELASTICSEARCHMERGED.data_retention_method %}
 
 ELASTICSEARCH_TEMPLATES_DIR="${ELASTICSEARCH_TEMPLATES_DIR:-/opt/so/conf/elasticsearch/templates}"
 TEMPLATE_DIRS=(