# Alias and Write index

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/alias-and-write-index/167873>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [February 11, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/alias-and-write-index/167873 "2019-02-11T14:54:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vasek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vasek/32/136636_2.png) [@vasek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vasek)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/alias-and-write-index/167873/1 "2019-02-11T14:54:37Z")

</div>

Hello,  
I have problem with setting an write index within alias. Could you please tell me what am I doing wrong?  
I am using Elasticsearch version 6.3.2. I tried steps below on version 6.5.4 and it worked well.

**CREATING INDICES**

```
curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/index-2019.02.11"
curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/index-2019.02.10"
curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/index-2019.02.09"
curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/index-2019.02.08"

```

**SETTING ALIAS FOR INDICES**

```
POST /_aliases
{
    "actions" : [
        { "add" : { "index" : "index-*", "alias" : "alias-index"} }
    ]                
}                                

```

**WATCHING ALIASES**

> watch -n5 'curl --silent -XGET localhost:9200/\_cat/aliases | grep ^alias-index'

```
alias-index index-2019.02.08 - - -
alias-index index-2019.02.09 - - -
alias-index index-2019.02.10 - - -
alias-index index-2019.02.11 - - -

```

**SETTING INDEX index-2019.02.11 AS WRITE INDEX**

```
curl -X POST "localhost:9200/_aliases" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
    "actions" : [
        {
            "add" : {
                 "index" : "index-2019.02.11",
                 "alias" : "alias-index",
                 "is_write_index" : true
            }
        }
    ]
}
'

```

**IN VERSION 6.5.4 I GOT**  
`{"acknowledged":true}`

**IN VERSION 6.3.2 I GOT**  
{  
"error" : {  
"root\_cause" : [  
{  
"type" : "x\_content\_parse\_exception",  
"reason" : "[8:18] [alias\_action] failed to parse field [add]"  
}  
],  
"type" : "x\_content\_parse\_exception",  
"reason" : "[8:18] [aliases] failed to parse field [actions]",  
"caused\_by" : {  
"type" : "x\_content\_parse\_exception",  
"reason" : "[8:18] [alias\_action] failed to parse field [add]",  
"caused\_by" : {  
"type" : "illegal\_argument\_exception",  
"reason" : "[add] unknown field [is\_write\_index], parser not found"  
}  
}  
},  
"status" : 400  
}

Is it possible to set write index in version 6.3.2 or upgrade is necessary? Could you please help me how to set write index on ES v. 6.3.2?

Regards,  
Vašek

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/alias-and-write-index/167873/2 "2019-02-16T16:07:15Z")

</div>

The `is_write_alias` flag was added in 6.4 (see [#31412](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/pull/31412)).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vasek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vasek/32/136636_2.png) [@vasek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vasek)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 9:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/alias-and-write-index/167873/3 "2019-02-17T09:27:58Z")

</div>

Thank you David!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 9:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/alias-and-write-index/167873/4 "2019-03-17T09:41:30Z")

</div>

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