# Correct way to setup the beats index patterns?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360
**Category:** Beats
**Tags:** metricbeat
**Created:** [December 11, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360 "2020-12-11T03:47:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jclemons7](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jclemons7)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360/1 "2020-12-11T03:47:59Z")
Hello and thanks in advance for the guidance. I've been trying to figure this out on my own for a while, but I'm not having any luck so I thought I'd just finally ask. What is the CORRECT way to setup the indexes for the beats in elasticsearch? I have 5-7 hosts in my lab (mix of windows and ubuntu) and I can deploy the beats to them just fine, but if I ever delete the **metricbeat-7.10.1-2020.12.11-000001** index through Kibana elasticsearch then creates an index named **metricbeat-7.10.1** which then breaks all of the sample dashboards.
I've read about "Loading the index template" at the following link -- \> [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/current/metricbeat-template.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/current/metricbeat-template.html)
Which led me to add the **setup.template.enabled: true** directive to my metricbeat.yml but it didn't seem to help.. I also tried **false** in case I was misunderstanding.. but that also did not help.
What **DOES** work, is stopping all instances of metribeat running on all devices in my environment.. then letting elastic create the correct index, then restarting all the instances. But I can't see that approach working at scale, which is what I'm trying to learn.
Here's my metricbeat.yml
```auto
metricbeat.config.modules:
path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml
reload.enabled: true
output.elasticsearch:
hosts: ["10.0.0.5:9200"]
processors:
- add_host_metadata: ~
- add_cloud_metadata: ~
- add_docker_metadata: ~
- add_kubernetes_metadata: ~
```
---
### Author:  [@borna\_talebi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/borna_talebi)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2020, 8:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360/2 "2020-12-14T08:25:23Z")
HI,
Sorry, but I couldn't understand your goal here. Do you want to safely change the index name from **metricbeat-7.10.1-2020.12.11-000001** to **metricbeat-7.10.1** or is it something else?
---
### Author:  [@jclemons7](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jclemons7)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2020, 3:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360/3 "2020-12-15T03:55:01Z")
Hey borna\_talebi,
Thanks for the response.. no, when I start up the first beat in my lab (for instance metricbeat) I get the "correct" name of the index.. which is in the form of **metricbeat-7.10.1-2020.12.11-000001** and all the default dashboards work perfectly. However, the second I manually delete the index **metricbeat-7.10.1-2020.12.11-000001** to clear the data from within Kibana.. Elasticsearch somehow re-creates the new index in the shorter form of **metricbeat-7.10.1** and the dashboards no longer work. I want to know where I need to configure (either beat or elasticsearch) to properly create the new index in the appropriate form of **metricbeat-7.10.1-2020.12.11-000001** again so that the dashboards will work afterwards.
---
### Author:  [@borna\_talebi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/borna_talebi)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2020, 8:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360/4 "2020-12-15T08:34:15Z")
> [@jclemons7](#):
>
> I want to know where I need to configure (either beat or elasticsearch) to properly create the new index in the appropriate form of **metricbeat-7.10.1-2020.12.11-000001** again so that the dashboards will work afterwards.
After deleting an index, try the below command and see if it creates the correct index for you:
`metricbeat setup -c PATH_TO_.YML_CONFIG_FILE`
Although dashboards usually work with index patterns like `metricbeats-*` so both of your index should work fine.
Could you check what index pattern your dashboards are using?
---
### Author:  [@jclemons7](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jclemons7)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 3:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360/5 "2020-12-16T15:50:45Z")
> [@borna\_talebi](#):
>
> Although dashboards usually work with index patterns like `metricbeats-*` so both of your index should work fine.
> Could you check what index pattern your dashboards are using?
yeah.. they all use metricbeat-\*, but.. when the **metricbeat-7.10.1** index is used.. instead of the **metricbeat-7.10.1-2020.12.11-000001** format.. I get failed shard messages on all the dashboards
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### Author:  [@borna\_talebi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/borna_talebi)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360/6 "2020-12-18T20:12:41Z")
Sorry for the late reply.
> [@jclemons7](#):
>
> I get failed shard messages on all the dashboards
What's the full error message? can you share it here?
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/correct-way-to-setup-the-beats-index-patterns/258360/7 "2021-01-15T22:12:45Z")
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