# Elasticsearch SLM policy Error

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-slm-policy-error/234516>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 27, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-slm-policy-error/234516 "2020-05-27T10:09:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zil2020](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c77e96/32.png) [@zil2020](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zil2020)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-slm-policy-error/234516/1 "2020-05-27T10:09:35Z")

</div>

Hello everyone.  
Elasticsearch 7.3.0  
I need help with setup SLM for automate backups.

**In terminal**

```auto
elastic@elastic: curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/_slm/policy/nightly-snapshots?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
  "schedule": "0 30 1 * * ?", 
  "name": "<nightly-snap-{now/d}>", 
  "repository": "my_repository", 
  "config": { 
    "indices": ["*"] 
  },
  "retention": { 
    "expire_after": "30d", 
    "min_count": 5, 
    "max_count": 50 
  }
}
'

```

**Error output**

```auto
"error" : {
    "root_cause" : [
      {
        "type" : "invalid_index_name_exception",
        "reason" : "Invalid index name [_slm], must not start with '_', '-', or '+'",
        "index_uuid" : "_na_",
        "index" : "_slm"
      }
    ],
    "type" : "invalid_index_name_exception",
    "reason" : "Invalid index name [_slm], must not start with '_', '-', or '+'",
    "index_uuid" : "_na_",
    "index" : "_slm"
  },
  "status" : 400

```

What am I doing wrong?  
Thank You.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 10:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-slm-policy-error/234516/2 "2020-05-27T10:51:53Z")

</div>

SLM was introduced in Elasticsearch 7.6 so you need to upgrade.

---

<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:** [June 24, 2020, 10:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-slm-policy-error/234516/3 "2020-06-24T10:51:59Z")

</div>

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