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Elastic Docs ›Elasticsearch Guide [7.11] ›REST APIs ›Index APIs

Create or update index template API

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Create or update index template API

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This documentation is about legacy index templates, which are deprecated and will be replaced by the composable templates introduced in Elasticsearch 7.8. For information about composable templates, see Index templates.

Creates or updates an index template.

PUT _template/template_1
{
  "index_patterns": ["te*", "bar*"],
  "settings": {
    "number_of_shards": 1
  },
  "mappings": {
    "_source": {
      "enabled": false
    },
    "properties": {
      "host_name": {
        "type": "keyword"
      },
      "created_at": {
        "type": "date",
        "format": "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy"
      }
    }
  }
}

Request

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PUT /_template/<index-template>

Prerequisites

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  • If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the manage_index_templates or manage cluster privilege to use this API.

Description

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Index templates define settings and mappings that you can automatically apply when creating new indices. Elasticsearch applies templates to new indices based on an index pattern that matches the index name.

Composable templates always take precedence over legacy templates. If no composable template matches a new index, matching legacy templates are applied according to their order.

Index templates are only applied during index creation. Changes to index templates do not affect existing indices. Settings and mappings specified in create index API requests override any settings or mappings specified in an index template.

Comments in index templates

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You can use C-style /* */ block comments in index templates. You can include comments anywhere in the request body, except before the opening curly bracket.

Getting templates

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See Get index template (legacy).

Path parameters

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<index-template>
(Required, string) Name of the index template to create.

Query parameters

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create
(Optional, Boolean) If true, this request cannot replace or update existing index templates. Defaults to false.
order

(Optional,integer) Order in which Elasticsearch applies this template if index matches multiple templates.

Templates with lower order values are merged first. Templates with higher order values are merged later, overriding templates with lower values.

master_timeout
(Optional, time units) Period to wait for a connection to the master node. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error. Defaults to 30s.

Request body

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index_patterns
(Required, array of strings) Array of wildcard expressions used to match the names of indices during creation.
aliases
(Optional, alias object) Index aliases which include the index. See Bulk index alias.
mappings

(Optional, mapping object) Mapping for fields in the index. If specified, this mapping can include:

See Mapping.

settings
(Optional, index setting object) Configuration options for the index. See Index Settings.
version
(Optional, integer) Version number used to manage index templates externally. This number is not automatically generated by Elasticsearch.

Examples

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Index template with index aliases

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You can include index aliases in an index template.

PUT _template/template_1
{
  "index_patterns" : ["te*"],
  "settings" : {
    "number_of_shards" : 1
  },
  "aliases" : {
    "alias1" : {},
    "alias2" : {
      "filter" : {
        "term" : {"user.id" : "kimchy" }
      },
      "routing" : "shard-1"
    },
    "{index}-alias" : {} 
  }
}

the {index} placeholder in the alias name will be replaced with the actual index name that the template gets applied to, during index creation.

Indices matching multiple templates

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Multiple index templates can potentially match an index, in this case, both the settings and mappings are merged into the final configuration of the index. The order of the merging can be controlled using the order parameter, with lower order being applied first, and higher orders overriding them. For example:

PUT /_template/template_1
{
  "index_patterns" : ["te*"],
  "order" : 0,
  "settings" : {
    "number_of_shards" : 1
  },
  "mappings" : {
    "_source" : { "enabled" : false }
  }
}

PUT /_template/template_2
{
  "index_patterns" : ["tes*"],
  "order" : 1,
  "settings" : {
    "number_of_shards" : 1
  },
  "mappings" : {
    "_source" : { "enabled" : true }
  }
}

The above will disable storing the _source, but for indices that start with tes*, _source will still be enabled. Note, for mappings, the merging is "deep", meaning that specific object/property based mappings can easily be added/overridden on higher order templates, with lower order templates providing the basis.

Multiple matching templates with the same order value will result in a non-deterministic merging order.

Template versioning

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You can use the version parameter to add an optional version number to an index template. External systems can use these version numbers to simplify template management.

The version parameter is completely optional and not automatically generated by Elasticsearch.

To unset a version, replace the template without specifying one.

PUT /_template/template_1
{
  "index_patterns" : ["my-index-*"],
  "order" : 0,
  "settings" : {
    "number_of_shards" : 1
  },
  "version": 123
}

To check the version, you can use the get index template API with the filter_path query parameter to return only the version number:

GET /_template/template_1?filter_path=*.version

The API returns the following response:

{
  "template_1" : {
    "version" : 123
  }
}
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