# How to emulate elasticsearch.yml in elasticsearch 5.0 **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 3, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934 "2016-11-03T18:58:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jloveric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e47774/32.png) [@jloveric](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jloveric)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934/1 "2016-11-03T18:58:48Z")
I recently switched to elasticsearch 5.0 and some of the things in elasticsearch.yml from 2.x don't seem to be working. I get an error on startup that warns my to define my index parameters using curl instead of elasticsearch.yml, the suggested modifcations did not work - and I determined I should be using the index template. Anyway, my es 2.x elasticsearch.yml looks like this ``` index : number_of_shards: 1 number_of_replicas: 1 similarity: default: type: BM25 b: 0.0 k1: 1.2 norm_bm25: type: BM25 b: 0.75 k1: 1.2 ``` And I've tried to use templates to replace this using ``` curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/_template/template1' -d '{ "template" : "*", "settings.number_of_replicas" : "1", "settings.number_of_shards" : "1", "settings.similarity.default.type" : "BM25", "settings.similarity.default.b" : "0.0", "settings.similarity.default.k1" : "1.2", "settings.similarity.norm_bm25.type" : "BM25", "settings.similarity.norm_bm25.b" : "0.75", "settings.similarity.norm_bm25.k1" : "1.2" }' ``` However, I seem to be getting errors from my elasticsearch.js (now at version 12.01) when I try to create a new index with the call (this worked fine with elasticsearch 2.x) ``` client.indices.create({ index: indexName, body: { settings: { number_of_shards: 1, similarity : "norm_bm25" } }. ... error stuff ``` The error is ``` '{"error":{"root_cause":[{"type":"illegal_argument_exception","reason":"unknown setting [index.similarity] please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings"}],"type":"illegal_argument_exception","reason":"unknown setting [index.similarity] please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings"},"status":400}' ``` I'm thinking the issue is with my template, but it is installed without warning. The problem could also be in elasticsearch.js - though elasticsearch.js 11.01, for which it worked before, also fails with es 5. Thanks for any help. John ---
**Author:** ![msimos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@msimos](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/msimos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934/2 "2016-11-03T19:57:06Z")
Hi, The default similarity has been renamed to classic: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/breaking\_50\_settings\_changes.html#\_similarity\_settings](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/breaking_50_settings_changes.html#_similarity_settings) ---
**Author:** ![jloveric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e47774/32.png) [@jloveric](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jloveric)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934/3 "2016-11-03T20:28:27Z")
Even though the default similarity is now classic, it looks like default is defined as type BM25 (though not totally clear from the documentation) [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/index-modules-similarity.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/index-modules-similarity.html) . I think things may be failing because of my definition of norm\_bm25? Nevertheless, I tried changing default (above) to, ``` "settings.similarity.classic.type" : "BM25", "settings.similarity.classic.b" : "0.0", "settings.similarity.classic.k1" : "1.2", ``` And still get the same problem. Also, in the elasticsearch.js snippet I've changed norm\_bm25 to both classic and default with the same result. John ---
**Author:** ![msimos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@msimos](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/msimos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934/4 "2016-11-03T20:53:32Z")
This works for me: ```auto $ curl -XPUT "http://172.17.42.1:9200/myindex" -d' { "settings": { "similarity": { "my_similarity": { "type": "BM25", "b": "0.0", "k1": "1.2" } } } } ' {"acknowledged":true,"shards_acknowledged":true} ``` I recommend you format your template in a similar way. ---
**Author:** ![jloveric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e47774/32.png) [@jloveric](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jloveric)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934/5 "2016-11-03T21:06:34Z")
What if I want it to work for all indexes by default? I'll have 10s of thousands of relatively small tables. ---
**Author:** ![msimos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@msimos](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/msimos)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934/6 "2016-11-04T00:10:21Z")
You need to do: curl -XPOST "[http://172.17.42.1:9200/myindex/\_close](http://172.17.42.1:9200/myindex/_close)" curl -XPUT "[http://172.17.42.1:9200/myindex/\_settings](http://172.17.42.1:9200/myindex/_settings)" -d' { "similarity": { "my\_similarity": { "type": "BM25", "b": "0.0", "k1": "1.2" } } }' curl -XPOST "[http://172.17.42.1:9200/myindex/\_open](http://172.17.42.1:9200/myindex/_open)" It doesn't appear you can dynamically set these on an open index. You can also try using \_all but will fail on any open index. ---
**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, 10:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-emulate-elasticsearch-yml-in-elasticsearch-5-0/64934/7 "2017-07-05T22:06:43Z")