Update mapping - what is safe to ignore?

Elastic Stack Elasticsearch
1

Using ES 0.16.2

Due to a change in the source content that I am indexing, I need to update a
field from a long to string.

The original mapping is dynamic, no explicit mapping was ever provided:
"event": {
"dynamic": "true",
"event_id": { "type": "long" },
// other fields ...
}

The field is never used and I do not care of "legacy" documents having the
correct type. Looking to change this value to a simple not_analyzed string:
"event_id": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" }

Of course, an update mapping between types does not work:
{"error":"MergeMappingException[Merge failed with failures {[mapper
[event.event_id] of different type, current_type [long], merged_type
[string]]}]","status":400}

At this point I set ignore_conflicts=true and executed the update mapping
(via curl). I received an acknowledgment, but the mapping is not executed.
{"ok":true,"acknowledged":true}

No errors appear in the log. I used used (abused?) ignore_conflicts in the
past with success, but I am not surprised it does not work in every case.
What are the cases were an update to a mapping simply is not possible?

My next question is for reindexing recipes, but that is for a different
thread.

Cheers,

Ivan

2

updates to the mapping in your case will cause a lot of trouble.
change the mapping and create a new index. then reindex and switch the
alias and optionally delete the old index.

Otherwise strange things can happen ...

On 22 Jul., 15:06, Ivan Brusic i...@brusic.com wrote:

Using ES 0.16.2

Due to a change in the source content that I am indexing, I need to update a
field from a long to string.

The original mapping is dynamic, no explicit mapping was ever provided:
"event": {
"dynamic": "true",
"event_id": { "type": "long" },
// other fields ...

}

The field is never used and I do not care of "legacy" documents having the
correct type. Looking to change this value to a simple not_analyzed string:
"event_id": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" }

Of course, an update mapping between types does not work:
{"error":"MergeMappingException[Merge failed with failures {[mapper

[event.event_id] of different type, current_type [long], merged_type
[string]]}]","status":400}

At this point I set ignore_conflicts=true and executed the update mapping
(via curl). I received an acknowledgment, but the mapping is not executed.
{"ok":true,"acknowledged":true}

No errors appear in the log. I used used (abused?) ignore_conflicts in the
past with success, but I am not surprised it does not work in every case.
What are the cases were an update to a mapping simply is not possible?

My next question is for reindexing recipes, but that is for a different
thread.

Cheers,

Ivan

3

You can't change the type of a field mapped, even when ignore_conflicts is
set to true. Ignore conflicts simply does that, ignore the conflicts and
applies what it can, it does not apply conflicts.

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Ivan Brusic ivan@brusic.com wrote:

Using ES 0.16.2

Due to a change in the source content that I am indexing, I need to update
a field from a long to string.

The original mapping is dynamic, no explicit mapping was ever provided:
"event": {
"dynamic": "true",
"event_id": { "type": "long" },
// other fields ...
}

The field is never used and I do not care of "legacy" documents having the
correct type. Looking to change this value to a simple not_analyzed string:
"event_id": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" }

Of course, an update mapping between types does not work:
{"error":"MergeMappingException[Merge failed with failures {[mapper

[event.event_id] of different type, current_type [long], merged_type
[string]]}]","status":400}

At this point I set ignore_conflicts=true and executed the update mapping
(via curl). I received an acknowledgment, but the mapping is not executed.
{"ok":true,"acknowledged":true}

No errors appear in the log. I used used (abused?) ignore_conflicts in the
past with success, but I am not surprised it does not work in every case.
What are the cases were an update to a mapping simply is not possible?

My next question is for reindexing recipes, but that is for a different
thread.

Cheers,

Ivan

4

I guess the question I really meant to ask is what updates are/are-not
possible? Change of type is not permitted. What else?

On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Shay Banon
shay.banon@elasticsearch.comwrote:

You can't change the type of a field mapped, even when ignore_conflicts is
set to true. Ignore conflicts simply does that, ignore the conflicts and
applies what it can, it does not apply conflicts.

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Ivan Brusic ivan@brusic.com wrote:

Using ES 0.16.2

Due to a change in the source content that I am indexing, I need to update
a field from a long to string.

The original mapping is dynamic, no explicit mapping was ever provided:
"event": {
"dynamic": "true",
"event_id": { "type": "long" },
// other fields ...
}

The field is never used and I do not care of "legacy" documents having the
correct type. Looking to change this value to a simple not_analyzed string:
"event_id": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" }

Of course, an update mapping between types does not work:
{"error":"MergeMappingException[Merge failed with failures {[mapper

[event.event_id] of different type, current_type [long], merged_type
[string]]}]","status":400}

At this point I set ignore_conflicts=true and executed the update mapping
(via curl). I received an acknowledgment, but the mapping is not executed.
{"ok":true,"acknowledged":true}

No errors appear in the log. I used used (abused?) ignore_conflicts in the
past with success, but I am not surprised it does not work in every case.
What are the cases were an update to a mapping simply is not possible?

My next question is for reindexing recipes, but that is for a different
thread.

Cheers,

Ivan

5

Yea, this needs to be documented, open an issue, I'll doc it.

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 12:48 AM, Ivan Brusic ivan@brusic.com wrote:

I guess the question I really meant to ask is what updates are/are-not
possible? Change of type is not permitted. What else?

On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Shay Banon <shay.banon@elasticsearch.com

wrote:

You can't change the type of a field mapped, even when ignore_conflicts is
set to true. Ignore conflicts simply does that, ignore the conflicts and
applies what it can, it does not apply conflicts.

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Ivan Brusic ivan@brusic.com wrote:

Using ES 0.16.2

Due to a change in the source content that I am indexing, I need to
update a field from a long to string.

The original mapping is dynamic, no explicit mapping was ever provided:
"event": {
"dynamic": "true",
"event_id": { "type": "long" },
// other fields ...
}

The field is never used and I do not care of "legacy" documents having
the correct type. Looking to change this value to a simple not_analyzed
string:
"event_id": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" }

Of course, an update mapping between types does not work:
{"error":"MergeMappingException[Merge failed with failures {[mapper

[event.event_id] of different type, current_type [long], merged_type
[string]]}]","status":400}

At this point I set ignore_conflicts=true and executed the update mapping
(via curl). I received an acknowledgment, but the mapping is not executed.
{"ok":true,"acknowledged":true}

No errors appear in the log. I used used (abused?) ignore_conflicts in
the past with success, but I am not surprised it does not work in every
case. What are the cases were an update to a mapping simply is not
possible?

My next question is for reindexing recipes, but that is for a different
thread.

Cheers,

Ivan

6

Done: Document what mapping updates are allowed · Issue #1166 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub

Obviously, a very low priority. I can probably get the information myself
by looking at the source code.

Thanks,

Ivan

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 12:55 AM, Shay Banon
shay.banon@elasticsearch.comwrote:

Yea, this needs to be documented, open an issue, I'll doc it.

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 12:48 AM, Ivan Brusic ivan@brusic.com wrote:

I guess the question I really meant to ask is what updates are/are-not
possible? Change of type is not permitted. What else?

On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Shay Banon <
shay.banon@elasticsearch.com> wrote:

You can't change the type of a field mapped, even when ignore_conflicts
is set to true. Ignore conflicts simply does that, ignore the conflicts and
applies what it can, it does not apply conflicts.

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Ivan Brusic ivan@brusic.com wrote:

Using ES 0.16.2

Due to a change in the source content that I am indexing, I need to
update a field from a long to string.

The original mapping is dynamic, no explicit mapping was ever provided:
"event": {
"dynamic": "true",
"event_id": { "type": "long" },
// other fields ...
}

The field is never used and I do not care of "legacy" documents having
the correct type. Looking to change this value to a simple not_analyzed
string:
"event_id": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" }

Of course, an update mapping between types does not work:
{"error":"MergeMappingException[Merge failed with failures {[mapper

[event.event_id] of different type, current_type [long], merged_type
[string]]}]","status":400}

At this point I set ignore_conflicts=true and executed the update
mapping (via curl). I received an acknowledgment, but the mapping is not
executed.
{"ok":true,"acknowledged":true}

No errors appear in the log. I used used (abused?) ignore_conflicts in
the past with success, but I am not surprised it does not work in every
case. What are the cases were an update to a mapping simply is not
possible?

My next question is for reindexing recipes, but that is for a different
thread.

Cheers,

Ivan