# Upgrade assistant re-index helper writes off cluster

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrade-assistant-re-index-helper-writes-off-cluster/139601>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 11, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrade-assistant-re-index-helper-writes-off-cluster/139601 "2018-07-11T14:59:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ant](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ant/32/33267_2.png) [@Ant](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ant)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrade-assistant-re-index-helper-writes-off-cluster/139601/1 "2018-07-11T14:59:57Z")

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When I use the re-index helper on my 5.6.6 cluster for either the kibana or watcher index elastic will not start on nodes any more.

in the logs I get

```auto
Error injecting constructor, java.lang.IllegalStateException: index and alias names need to be unique, but the following duplicates were found [.watches (alias of [.watches-6/w4Y-TvLGSveLC8SygHm3xg])]
  at org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.<init>(Unknown Source)
  while locating org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState

```

I've not run an update this is just running the index helper and then restarting the nodes. If I then go on each node and under the data directories (I run 2) delete the folders `/data/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/TvLGSveLC8SygHm3xg` then the node will restart but repeate the error on further restarts. If I delete it on all nodes and do a full restart then it will all load back up but the kibana index gets re-created as a v5.x index and I'm told I need to upgrade it again by the upgrade assistant.

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<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:** [August 8, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrade-assistant-re-index-helper-writes-off-cluster/139601/2 "2018-08-08T14:59:58Z")

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