# ECS template initial import

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ecs-template-initial-import/268492>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 26, 2021, 12:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ecs-template-initial-import/268492 "2021-03-26T12:38:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Til\_bardaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Til\_bardaga](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Til_bardaga)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2021, 12:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ecs-template-initial-import/268492/1 "2021-03-26T12:38:37Z")

</div>

I am having trouble figuring out how to start using an ECS index template.

I have read through a lot of the documentation and familiarized myself with the concepts of ECS.  
Now I want to test it in practice.

The questions I have are:

1. Where can I find the latest ECS index template ? Which file(s) do I need to download ?
2. What is the official (best practice way) for starting with ECS ?  
After importing a json a colleague gave to me I now see the index template in the "Legacy index templates", which means something is not correct in this json.

**I want to have all the fields that are described in the [ECS field reference](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/ecs/current/ecs-field-reference.html).**

P.S: I don't want filebeat or logstash to import the index template because I don't need to use them in my current environment since we are using fluentd on the client side.

**Elasticsearch, Kibana version: 7.8.1**

---

<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:** [April 23, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ecs-template-initial-import/268492/2 "2021-04-23T12:39:21Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.