# I can't figure out what I should be setting rollover\_alias to

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-cant-figure-out-what-i-should-be-setting-rollover-alias-to/258329>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 10, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-cant-figure-out-what-i-should-be-setting-rollover-alias-to/258329 "2020-12-10T19:21:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Russell\_Fulton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/russell_fulton/32/62888_2.png) [@Russell\_Fulton](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Russell_Fulton)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-cant-figure-out-what-i-should-be-setting-rollover-alias-to/258329/1 "2020-12-10T19:21:19Z")

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put another way I don't understand the function of rollover\_alias and I can't find an explanation in the docs. My managed indices keep failing with errors like this: `illegal_argument_exception: index.lifecycle.rollover_alias [dns_managed] does not point to index [dns_managed]`  
where dns\_managed is the name of the index which is matched by the template

```auto
PUT _template/dns?include_type_name
{
  "version": 1,
  "order": 0,
  "index_patterns": [
    "dns_m*"
  ],
  "settings": {
    "index": {
      "lifecycle": {
        "name": "dns_logs",
        "rollover_alias": "dns_managed"
      },
      "number_of_shards": "2"
    }
  },
  "aliases": {
    "dns_query": {}
  },
  "mappings": {
    "_doc": {
      "properties": {
        "dns_query": {
          "type": "text"
        },
        "ip": {
          "type": "ip"
        },
        "timepstamp": {
          "format": "8yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS X",
          "type": "date"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

---

<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:** [January 7, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-cant-figure-out-what-i-should-be-setting-rollover-alias-to/258329/2 "2021-01-07T19:21:20Z")

</div>

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