# ILM - index already exists error **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management\ **Created:** [August 2, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-already-exists-error/193541 "2019-08-02T13:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ollyw](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ollyw/32/51510_2.png) [@ollyw](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ollyw)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-already-exists-error/193541/1 "2019-08-02T13:30:55Z")
I am new to the ILM side of things and have got over a number of hurdles but now stuck! I have a set of indexes which include the date in their name e.g. logs-20190708, logs-20190709 My ILM policy has a rollover\_alias of the form rollover-logs-20190708, rollover-logs-20190709, etc The error I get is that when e.g. logs-20190708 goes into the check-rollover-ready phase I get an error saying logs-20190709/blah ResourceAlreadyExistsException. So an index for the following date Any ideas what is causing this and how to resolve? ---
**Author:** ![antcas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@antcas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/antcas)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2019, 9:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-already-exists-error/193541/2 "2019-08-05T09:23:03Z")
In our case, we are using the alias without the date, but we added the date as a formula to the index name when we created it. For example, we have an index `logs-debug-2019.08.05-000156` with the alias `logs-debug` and when it is rolled over, the new name will be `logs-debug-DATE-000157`. Here's some docs on this: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-rollover-index.html#\_using\_date\_math\_with\_the\_rollover\_api](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-rollover-index.html#_using_date_math_with_the_rollover_api) ---
**Author:** ![dakrone](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dakrone/32/23351_2.png) [@dakrone](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dakrone)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-already-exists-error/193541/3 "2019-08-05T20:48:50Z")
Hi Oliver, Can you post the output of ```auto GET //_ilm/explain?human ``` As well as a copy of the ILM policy so we can try to figure out what's going on? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![ollyw](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ollyw/32/51510_2.png) [@ollyw](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ollyw)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 8:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-already-exists-error/193541/4 "2019-08-19T08:45:19Z")
Apologies been on holiday! So here is the output from the ilm GET: ``` { "indices" : { "xxx-prod-20190803" : { "index" : "xxx-prod-20190803", "managed" : true, "policy" : "xxx-logs-rollover", "lifecycle_date" : "2019-08-03T00:00:00.137Z", "lifecycle_date_millis" : 1564790400137, "phase" : "hot", "phase_time" : "2019-08-03T00:00:03.769Z", "phase_time_millis" : 1564790403769, "action" : "rollover", "action_time" : "2019-08-03T00:04:52.406Z", "action_time_millis" : 1564790692406, "step" : "ERROR", "step_time" : "2019-08-03T00:14:51.243Z", "step_time_millis" : 1564791291243, "failed_step" : "check-rollover-ready", "step_info" : { "type" : "illegal_argument_exception", "reason" : "setting [index.lifecycle.rollover_alias] for index [xxx-prod-20190803] is empty or not defined", "stack_trace" : """ java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: setting [index.lifecycle.rollover_alias] for index [kwiff-prod-20190803] is empty or not defined at org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.indexlifecycle.WaitForRolloverReadyStep.evaluateCondition(WaitForRolloverReadyStep.java:50) at org.elasticsearch.xpack.indexlifecycle.IndexLifecycleRunner.runPeriodicStep(IndexLifecycleRunner.java:133) at org.elasticsearch.xpack.indexlifecycle.IndexLifecycleService.triggerPolicies(IndexLifecycleService.java:270) at org.elasticsearch.xpack.indexlifecycle.IndexLifecycleService.triggered(IndexLifecycleService.java:213) at org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.scheduler.SchedulerEngine.notifyListeners(SchedulerEngine.java:168) at org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.scheduler.SchedulerEngine$ActiveSchedule.run(SchedulerEngine.java:196) at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:515) at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264) at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:304) at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128) at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628) at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834) """ }, "phase_execution" : { "policy" : "xxx-logs-rollover", "phase_definition" : { "min_age" : "0ms", "actions" : { "rollover" : { "max_size" : "50gb", "max_age" : "7d" }, "set_priority" : { "priority" : 100 } } }, "version" : 1, "modified_date" : "2019-07-04T12:30:18.743Z", "modified_date_in_millis" : 1562243418743 } } } } ``` The policy has very little in it - was created using the GUI: ``` { "xxx-logs-rollover" : { "version" : 1, "modified_date" : "2019-07-04T12:30:18.743Z", "policy" : { "phases" : { "hot" : { "min_age" : "0ms", "actions" : { "rollover" : { "max_size" : "50gb", "max_age" : "7d" }, "set_priority" : { "priority" : 100 } } }, "warm" : { "min_age" : "14d", "actions" : { "allocate" : { "include" : { }, "exclude" : { }, "require" : { "data" : "warm" } }, "forcemerge" : { "max_num_segments" : 1 }, "set_priority" : { "priority" : 50 }, "shrink" : { "number_of_shards" : 1 } } }, "cold" : { "min_age" : "30d", "actions" : { "set_priority" : { "priority" : 0 } } } } } } } ``` ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 8:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ilm-index-already-exists-error/193541/5 "2019-09-16T08:45:22Z")
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