# Node won’t start up due to duplicate alias/index names (HELP)
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/node-won-t-start-up-due-to-duplicate-alias-index-names-help/288123
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 1, 2021, 9:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/node-won-t-start-up-due-to-duplicate-alias-index-names-help/288123 "2021-11-01T09:23:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rabih\_harb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rabih_harb)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2021, 9:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/node-won-t-start-up-due-to-duplicate-alias-index-names-help/288123/1 "2021-11-01T09:23:29Z")
Dear community,
we have a major issue in our production cluster (2.4.6):
previous cluster setup:
4 nodes ( master and data)
the upgrade done on the cluster was:
4 nodes---\> set as data only master false.
2 additional nodes were added and set as master and data false as fronts.
after the restart, the following issues occurred:
- index was created with the same name as an alias.
- many monthly data(indexes) were purged
- all templates on the cluster were lost/ disappeared
one of the data nodes, are not even starting properly.
\
2021-10-25 17:54:37] Error requesting cluster data:
[2021-10-25 17:54:37] {"data":{"error":{"root\_cause":[{"type":"transport\_serialization\_exception","reason":"Failed to deserialize response of type [org.Elasticsearch.action.admin.cluster.state.ClusterStateResponse]"}],"type":"transport\_serialization\_exception","reason":"Failed to deserialize response of type [org.Elasticsearch.action.admin.cluster.state.ClusterStateResponse]","caused\_by":{"type":"illegal\_state\_exception","reason":"index and alias names need to be unique, but alias [profiles\_gh\_keed-current] and index [profiles\_gh\_keed-current] have the same name"}},"status":500},"status":500,
\
Problem:
- index: profiles\_gh\_keed-current shouldn't exist (dono how it was created) we can delete it but impossible to delete.
- alias: profiles\_gh\_keed-current points to the correct index: profiles\_gh\_keed (400GB of data)
- impossible to replicate the issue on test because it is impossible to create an alias with the same index name.
need to delete index: profiles\_gh\_keed-current without impacting the profiles\_gh\_keed
we tried to close the index profiles\_gh\_keed-current it worked how can force the Elasticsearch to **delete this index only** and not touch anything else?
in order for the cluster nodes to start properly.
Many thanks for the support.
Best
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2021, 11:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/node-won-t-start-up-due-to-duplicate-alias-index-names-help/288123/2 "2021-11-01T23:59:00Z")
Welcome to our community! 😃
> [@Rabih\_harb](#):
>
> we have a major issue in our production cluster (2.4.6):
2.X is very, very, very old, is [EOL](https://www.elastic.co/support/eol) and no longer supported. Please upgrade.
> [@Rabih\_harb](#):
>
> we can delete it but impossible to delete.
Why is that?
> [@Rabih\_harb](#):
>
> we tried to close the index profiles\_gh\_keed-current it worked how can force the Elasticsearch to **delete this index only** and not touch anything else?
`curl -XDELETE 0:9200/INDEXNAME` should work.
---
### Author:  [@Rabih\_harb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rabih_harb)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/node-won-t-start-up-due-to-duplicate-alias-index-names-help/288123/3 "2021-11-02T13:08:39Z")
Thank you warkolm, for your feedback
we need to delete the badly created index so that the cluster is in good shape
bad index :profiles\_gh\_keed-current
good index: profiles\_gh\_keed
alias for good index: profiles\_gh\_keed-current
so i need to curl -XDELETE 0:9200/profiles\_gh\_keed-current
without touching the good index profiles\_gh\_keed withe same alias "profiles\_gh\_keed-current"
do you confirm that this is possible??
Many thanks!
Best,
---
### Author:  [@Rabih\_harb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rabih_harb)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2021, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/node-won-t-start-up-due-to-duplicate-alias-index-names-help/288123/4 "2021-11-04T14:08:27Z")
just for the record
i managed to delete the faulty index by:
- close faulty index
- give the faulty index a dummy alias
- delete Via dummy Alias and condition closed.
the main one won't be touched...
curl -XDELETE '[http://IP](http://IP):PORT/test\_index-test?expand\_wildcards=closed'
where " **test\_index-test**" in my case is the dummy alias assigned for the faulty index
Cheers
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/node-won-t-start-up-due-to-duplicate-alias-index-names-help/288123/5 "2021-12-02T14:08:39Z")
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