# Nested fields not created with mappiings

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-fields-not-created-with-mappiings/45508>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 26, 2016, 9:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-fields-not-created-with-mappiings/45508 "2016-03-26T09:51:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RafPe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rafpe/32/6460_2.png) [@RafPe](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RafPe)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 9:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-fields-not-created-with-mappiings/45508/1 "2016-03-26T09:51:04Z")

</div>

Hello everyone,

I'm starting with Elasticsearch and I have created a simple one node cluster to explore its capabilities. At the moment I have been trying to put data into elasticsearch with nested json objects. I have read through documentation and several other links but I think I'm missing something here.

My goal is to have Network property with accessible sub properties i.e. Network[0].Adapter\_Type however I cannot get this to work.

I'm posting into elasticsearch json which looks following :

```
{
    "ESXI_Name": "stewie.prd.local",
    "VM_Name": "asterix-01",
    "VM_Datastore_Name": [
      "xyz-2",
      "xyz-2",
    ],
    "VM_vCPUs": 2,
    "VM_MemoryGB": 16,
    "Guest_OS": "Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)",
    "Network": [
      {
        "VM_Name": "asterix-01",
        "Adapter_Name": "Network adapter 2",
        "Adapter_Type": "Vmxnet3",
        "PortGroup": "vlan-666",
        "Adapter_MacAddress": "00:FF:56:AF:01:05",
        "Adapter_WakeOnLan": true
      },
      {
        "VM_Name": "asterix-01",
        "Adapter_Name": "Network adapter 2",
        "Adapter_Type": "Vmxnet3",
        "PortGroup": "vlan-666",
        "Adapter_MacAddress": "00:FF:4A:87:01:05",
        "Adapter_WakeOnLan": true
      }
    ],
    "datetime": "20160325T143803Z"
}

```

I'm sending this to index **cmdb** with type of **server**. From what I found in documentation is that I would need to create a mapping - which I have done using the following :

```
{
  "mappings": {
    "server": {
      "properties": {
        "Network": {
          "type": "nested", 
          "properties": {
            "VM_Name": { "type": "string" },
            "Adapter_Name": { "type": "string" },
            "Adapter_Type": { "type": "string" },
            "PortGroup": { "type": "string" },
            "Adapter_MacAddress": { "type": "string" },
            "Adapter_WakeOnLan": { "type": "string" }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

But as soon as I post any data I get Network contents as JSON i.e.

```
  {
  "VM_Name": "asterix-01",
  "Adapter_Name": "Network adapter 2",
  "Adapter_Type": "Vmxnet3",
  "PortGroup": "vlan-666",
  "Adapter_MacAddress": "00:FF:56:87:01:05",
  "Adapter_WakeOnLan": true
},
{
  "VM_Name": "asterix-01",
  "Adapter_Name": "Network adapter 2",
  "Adapter_Type": "Vmxnet3",
  "PortGroup": "vlan-666",
  "Adapter_MacAddress": "00:50:AA:87:D5:05",
  "Adapter_WakeOnLan": true
}

```

If anyone could point me into direction how I could get this properly sorted would be great!

thanks  
Raf

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Glen\_Smith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/glen_smith/32/111656_2.png) [@Glen\_Smith](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Glen_Smith)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-fields-not-created-with-mappiings/45508/2 "2016-03-26T16:14:51Z")

</div>

Raf,

I can't figure out what your expectation is.

That last snippet that you posted, is that the Network portion of the document that you retrieved after indexing the document? That's exactly what it _should_ look like, whether or not you declared Network to be nested. Indexing does not modify the source in any way.

By declaring that particular inner-object property of your documents to be "nested", you have enabled yourself to search for `server` based on multiple Network fields without crosstalk. [Please see here for a thorough explanation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.2/nested.html).

Does that help?

Glen

---

<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:** [July 5, 2017, 11:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-fields-not-created-with-mappiings/45508/3 "2017-07-05T23:04:55Z")

</div>