# Watcher history indices not being created automatically **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** elastic-stack-alerting\ **Created:** [September 14, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-history-indices-not-being-created-automatically/29275 "2015-09-14T18:52:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![graham\_](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@graham\_](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/graham_)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-history-indices-not-being-created-automatically/29275/1 "2015-09-14T18:52:29Z")
Every watch execution throws an exception until I manually create the .watch\_history- index for that day. elasticsearch 2.0.0-beta1 watcher 2.0.0-beta1 [2015-09-14 18:50:54,727][ERROR][org.elasticsearch.watcher.execution] [Mikula Golubev] failed to update watch record [log\_error\_watch\_56-2015-09-14T18:50:54.717Z] [.watch\_history-2015.09.14] IndexNotFoundException[no such index] at org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexNameExpressionResolver.concreteIndices(IndexNameExpressionResolver.java:145) at org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexNameExpressionResolver.concreteIndices(IndexNameExpressionResolver.java:89) at org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexNameExpressionResolver.concreteSingleIndex(IndexNameExpressionResolver.java:202) at org.elasticsearch.action.support.replication.TransportReplicationAction$PrimaryPhase.checkBlocks(TransportReplicationAction.java:405) at org.elasticsearch.action.support.replication.TransportReplicationAction$PrimaryPhase.doRun(TransportReplicationAction.java:366) at org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.AbstractRunnable.run(AbstractRunnable.java:37) at org.elasticsearch.action.support.replication.TransportReplicationAction.doExecute(TransportReplicationAction.java:120) at org.elasticsearch.action.index.TransportIndexAction.innerExecute(TransportIndexAction.java:140) at org.elasticsearch.action.index.TransportIndexAction.doExecute(TransportIndexAction.java:119) at org.elasticsearch.action.index.TransportIndexAction.doExecute(TransportIndexAction.java:66) at org.elasticsearch.action.support.TransportAction.execute(TransportAction.java:70) at org.elasticsearch.client.node.NodeClient.doExecute(NodeClient.java:58) at org.elasticsearch.client.support.AbstractClient.execute(AbstractClient.java:347) at org.elasticsearch.client.support.AbstractClient.execute(AbstractClient.java:336) at org.elasticsearch.client.support.AbstractClient.index(AbstractClient.java:354) at org.elasticsearch.watcher.support.init.proxy.ClientProxy.index(ClientProxy.java:86) at org.elasticsearch.watcher.history.HistoryStore.put(HistoryStore.java:87) at org.elasticsearch.watcher.execution.ExecutionService.execute(ExecutionService.java:299) at org.elasticsearch.watcher.execution.ExecutionService$WatchExecutionTask.run(ExecutionService.java:419) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745) ---
**Author:** ![mvg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mvg/32/98890_2.png) [@mvg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mvg)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-history-indices-not-being-created-automatically/29275/2 "2015-09-14T19:56:57Z")
Thanks for sharing this. Not sure what it is, but this shouldn't happen. A few questions: 1. Did you change the `action.auto_create_index` setting? If so can you share that setting? 2. Can you share all your dynamic templates? (localhost:9200/\_templates?pretty) 3. Did you upgrade your cluster before you were running ES & Watcher version `2.0.0-beta1`? ---
**Author:** ![graham\_](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@graham\_](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/graham_)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-history-indices-not-being-created-automatically/29275/3 "2015-09-14T20:14:14Z")
Ahh yes, it was the auto\_create\_index setting. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![mvg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mvg/32/98890_2.png) [@mvg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mvg)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 11:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-history-indices-not-being-created-automatically/29275/4 "2015-09-15T11:39:19Z")
good to know and thanks for reporting this! I think Watcher should be improved on order to make this misconfiguration clearer. Btw you can still use the `action.auto_create_index:` setting by configuring the following: ```auto action.auto_create_index: '.watches,.triggered_watches,.watch_history-*' ``` Only indices for watcher are then allowed to be created dynamically. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-history-indices-not-being-created-automatically/29275/5 "2017-07-06T13:48:43Z")