# Issue Upgrading from Elasticsearch 8.19.4 to 9.1.4 – Indices Not Read-Only Despite Settings
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** docker
**Created:** [October 3, 2025, 9:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398 "2025-10-03T09:45:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RuiCosta78](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RuiCosta78)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2025, 9:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/1 "2025-10-03T09:45:41Z")
Hi everyone,
We're in the process of upgrading our Elasticsearch cluster from version **8.12.0** to **9.1.4** , following the recommended upgrade path. Here's what we've done so far:
1. Upgraded from **8.12.0 → 8.19.4** (latest 8.x version).
2. Set all indices to **read-only** , especially those originally created in version 7.x.
3. Elasticsearch is running in a **Docker container** , behind **Nginx**.
However, during the upgrade to **9.1.4** , the logs indicate that some indices are **not read-only** , which blocks the upgrade. This is confusing because we explicitly set them to read-only using:
```json
PUT /_all/_settings
{
"settings": {
"index.blocks.write": true
}
}
```
We’ve verified the settings via:
```json
GET /_all/_settings?include_defaults=true
```
And the indices appear to have `"index.blocks.write": true`.
Has anyone encountered this issue during a similar upgrade? Could this be related to:
- Docker volume persistence?
- Nginx proxy interfering with API calls?
- Indices from version 7.x needing additional steps?
Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Rui
---
### Author:  [@RuiCosta78](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RuiCosta78)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2025, 2:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/2 "2025-10-13T14:48:10Z")
Could anyone please help on this issue?
---
### Author:  [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/3 "2025-10-13T15:06:59Z")
Which documentation are you following? Can you share it?
I don't think you need to set **all** indices to read-only, never had to do this, you may need to set **older** indices only, the ones created before version 8.X.
Can you share the message you are seeing? It is complaining about older system indices?
I don't think setting **all indices** to read only is part of the upgrade path, never had to do this.
---
### Author:  [@RainTown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RainTown)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/4 "2025-10-13T17:03:04Z")
I recall hitting something similar and later found I'd misunderstood the Kibana Upgrade Assistant UI around 8.19.0 / 9.0.0 release.
It told me I'd need to migrate indices or set them to read-only. They were old indices so I didn't really care to write to them. But I failed to notice there was a button to do the index version migration, which I had not hit, and instead I was messing around with read-only options which didn't work.
---
### Author:  [@Keith\_Massey](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Keith_Massey)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/5 "2025-10-14T13:42:01Z")
> But I failed to notice there was a button to do the index version migration, which I had not hit, and instead I was messing around with read-only options which didn't work.
I think that this is the answer. It is sometimes easy to miss some of the buttons in the upgrade assistant. That button sets the indices to read-only in a special way that indicates “this is read only and I am OK with it being read-only forever”. This way we don’t accidentally upgrade to 9.x with a 7.x index that you had previously marked as read-only with the intention of making it writable again in the future – because once you get to 9.x that decision is not reversible.
---
### Author:  [@RainTown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RainTown)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2025, 11:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/6 "2025-10-15T11:33:53Z")
@RuiCosta78 have the suggestions helped?
---
### Author:  [@RuiCosta78](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RuiCosta78)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/7 "2025-10-16T10:17:08Z")
Hello.
This is the error message that appears when trying to start the docker container:
{"@timestamp":"2025-10-16T10:15:42.324Z", "log.level":"ERROR", "message":"fatal exception while booting Elasticsearch", "ecs.version": "1.2.0","service.name":"ES\_ECS","event.dataset":"elasticsearch.server","process.thread.name":"main","log.logger":"org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch","elasticsearch.node.name":"87089138fb17","elasticsearch.cluster.name":"docker-elasticsearch","error.type":"java.lang.IllegalStateException","error.message":"The index [.ds-.logs-deprecation.elasticsearch-default-2022.04.26-000010/CLfSJWgRTzytCO-Dxw-WQQ] created in version [7.16.2] with current compatibility version [7.16.2] must be marked as read-only using the setting [index.blocks.write] set to [true] before upgrading to 9.1.4.","error.stack\_trace":"java.lang.IllegalStateException: The index [.ds-.logs-deprecation.elasticsearch-default-2022.04.26-000010/CLfSJWgRTzytCO-Dxw-WQQ] created in version [7.16.2] with current compatibility version [7.16.2] must be marked as read-only using the setting [index.blocks.write] set to [true] before upgrading to 9.1.4.\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetadataVerifier.isReadOnlySupportedVersion(IndexMetadataVerifier.java:180)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetadataVerifier.checkSupportedVersion(IndexMetadataVerifier.java:126)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetadataVerifier.verifyIndexMetadata(IndexMetadataVerifier.java:98)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.upgradeProjectMetadata(GatewayMetaState.java:318)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.upgradeMetadata(GatewayMetaState.java:299)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.upgradeMetadataForNode(GatewayMetaState.java:286)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.createOnDiskPersistedState(GatewayMetaState.java:194)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.createPersistedState(GatewayMetaState.java:148)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.start(GatewayMetaState.java:106)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.node.Node.start(Node.java:315)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.start(Elasticsearch.java:620)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.initPhase3(Elasticsearch.java:420)\n\tat org.elasticsearch.server@9.1.4/org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:100)\n"}
---
### Author:  [@RuiCosta78](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RuiCosta78)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2025, 10:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/8 "2025-10-16T10:18:12Z")
As a follow up to the previous answer, I don’t have Kibana so the upgrade assistant solution does not apply to me. Instead I have installed Grafana.
---
### Author:  [@RainTown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RainTown)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2025, 11:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/9 "2025-10-16T11:05:42Z")
> [@RuiCosta78](#):
>
> As a follow up to the previous answer, I don’t have Kibana so the upgrade assistant solution does not apply to me. Instead I have installed Grafana.
Well, I very strongly advise you to install a kibana instance. Grafana is a great tool for 101 things, but kibana is tightly integrated with elasticsearch.
The upgrade is documented [here](https://www.elastic.co/docs/deploy-manage/upgrade/prepare-to-upgrade). Its very explicit, I am just going to quote:
> The [Upgrade Assistant](https://www.elastic.co/docs/deploy-manage/upgrade/prepare-to-upgrade/upgrade-assistant) identifies deprecated settings in your configuration and guides you through resolving issues that could prevent a successful upgrade. The Upgrade Assistant also helps resolve issues with older indices created before version 8.0.0, providing the option to reindex older indices or mark them as read-only. To prevent upgrade failures, we strongly recommend you **do not** skip this step.
---
### Author:  [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2025, 12:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/10 "2025-10-16T12:27:53Z")
> [@RuiCosta78](#):
>
> As a follow up to the previous answer, I don’t have Kibana so the upgrade assistant solution does not apply to me. Instead I have installed Grafana.
Even if you do not use Kibana you should have an instance configured, the Upgrade Assistant is a Kibana feature and when upgrading major version is strongly recommend to check for issues on it and solve them.
Besides that, Kibana also makes the management part of Elasticsearch a lot more easier, I would recommend that you spin-up a Kibana instance in your cluster.
I'm not sure how you recover from that now, is your cluster up? Do you have a snapshot?
---
### Author:  [@RuiCosta78](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RuiCosta78)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2025, 9:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/11 "2025-10-17T09:46:11Z")
Thanks for the replies.
Will try to run a Kibana service and upgrade from that. Will tell you the results afterwards.
---
### Author:  [@focus\_zheng](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/focus_zheng)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2025, 8:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-upgrading-from-elasticsearch-8-19-4-to-9-1-4-indices-not-read-only-despite-settings/382398/12 "2025-11-21T08:50:39Z")
Do you finish the upgrade?