# Aliases do not work for "dissimilar" indices? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [October 10, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/aliases-do-not-work-for-dissimilar-indices/31944 "2015-10-10T00:44:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hh\_marshall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@hh\_marshall](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hh_marshall)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/aliases-do-not-work-for-dissimilar-indices/31944/1 "2015-10-10T00:44:25Z")
I was trying an experiment to query multiple indices from kibana4 ala kibana3. These are 2 different data sources that are stored in separate daily indices (see snippet). They have different fields, different mappings, and different "\_type" values. There are other approaches to the bigger problem (re-indexing the 2 data sources into a single unified daily index is the primary one I guess), but for the purpose of this post, I merely wish to establish the constraints I observe in using aliases. So I issued the following: ``` curl -XPUT elk/duo-2015.10.09/_alias/alias1-2015.10.09 curl -XPUT elk/cisco-2015.10.09/_alias/alias1-2015.10.09 ``` Then I point kibana4 at the alias from the "Settings" pane ("add new index pattern"). It finds the pattern ("[alias1-]YYYY.MM.DD") and offers up the various date fields as options for the timestamp. When I look at the data in the Discover pane, only data and field names from one of the indices are present. I suspect that an alias can only work for a group of indices if they have the same mapping? same \_type? Or some other constraint that I am expressing poorly? 😄 Thanks for any help, hints, and/or benign hooliganism. hunter ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/aliases-do-not-work-for-dissimilar-indices/31944/2 "2017-07-05T23:45:34Z")