# Exclude fields from being indexed via dynamic templates mapping
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 4, 2018, 1:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998 "2018-08-04T01:34:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mrubin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mrubin)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2018, 1:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/1 "2018-08-04T01:34:35Z")
I have the following kind of json being indexed into ElasticSearch via Logstash:
```
"gameUpdate" : {
"someField" : "something interesting",
"otherStuff" : "...",
"gameScores" : {
"playerID1" : { ... },
"playerID2" : { ... },
"playerID3" : { ... },
...
}
}
```
There could be a a large number of unique player IDs. I routinely run into "Could not index event to Elasticsearch. ... Limit of total fields [1000] in index [...] has been exceeded"
I have tried setting a custom template for this index as follows:
```
PUT _template/game-updates
{
"index_patterns": ["game-updates-*"],
"mappings": {
"doc": {
"dynamic_templates": [
{
"dont_index_scores": {
"path_match": "gameUpdate.gameScores",
"mapping": {
"index": false
}
}
}
]
}
}
}
```
For the path to match, I've tried "gameUpdate.gameScores" and "gameUpdate.gameScores.\*" and various other variants. If I retrieve the mapping for an index created from this template, it echoes that gameScores should not be indexed. However, I still see the logstash errors.
What is the correct way to exclude these fields from the index?
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/2 "2018-08-06T16:03:08Z")
try
```auto
"gameUpdate" : {
"properties: {
"gameScores": {
"type": "object",
"enabled": false
},
}
..
```
hope this helps
---
### Author:  [@mrubin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mrubin)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/3 "2018-08-06T23:35:01Z")
Is your suggestion meant for manually mapping the index, or for a dynamic mapping template? Can you please provide a more complete example which includes the
```
"mappings": {
"doc": {
"dynamic_templates": [
...
```
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 6:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/4 "2018-08-07T06:26:23Z")
you can put that directly into the mapping, as you do not need to match anything, you are referring directly to the fields.
---
### Author:  [@mrubin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mrubin)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 11:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/5 "2018-08-07T11:04:06Z")
Can I mix both a dynamic mapping template and this one property specified in the mapping?
Edit: my index is auto-created every day when logstash rolls over to a new date. It's not feasible to create an explicit mapping for it. I need to use a dynamic mapping template that I can set once and have it apply to any index created which matches a certain pattern.
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 11:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/6 "2018-08-07T11:25:49Z")
yes, you can.
---
### Author:  [@mrubin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mrubin)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 12:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/7 "2018-08-07T12:16:12Z")
How do I specify a mapping when my index is auto-created every day by logstash?
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/8 "2018-08-07T12:27:03Z")
via an [index template](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.3/indices-templates.html) (logstash is using the exact same mechanism)
---
### Author:  [@mrubin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mrubin)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/9 "2018-08-10T03:44:02Z")
Thanks - this worked. I didn't know I could explicitly specify a field in the mapping (to be disabled, for example) while letting dynamic mapping still take care of the rest of the fields it encounters.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 3:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-fields-from-being-indexed-via-dynamic-templates-mapping/142998/10 "2018-09-07T03:55:08Z")
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