# Watcher index closed error

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-index-closed-error/65053>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-alerting\
**Created:** [November 4, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-index-closed-error/65053 "2016-11-04T19:00:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![piyush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecb155/32.png) [@piyush](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/piyush)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-index-closed-error/65053/1 "2016-11-04T19:00:48Z")

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Hi Team,  
I installed watcher and post testing we were not using it for a month, due to other priorities. In the mean time i did some index closed exercise. Now i have alert stories to work on but when tried to access watcher it's throwing index closed exception.  
May i know which index to open for this? \_watcher/\_open didn't work and i can't find \_watcher index.

Details:

1. Get \_watcher  
{  
"version": {  
"number": "2.3.1",  
"build\_hash": "9b8af7034bcde3",  
"build\_timestamp": "2016-04-04T12:57:03Z",  
"build\_snapshot": false  
},  
"tagline": "You Know, for Alerts & Automation"  
}

2. Get \_watcher/watch/fs\_disk\_top1  
{  
"error": {  
"root\_cause": [  
{  
"type": "cluster\_block\_exception",  
"reason": "blocked by: [FORBIDDEN/4/index closed];"  
}  
],  
"type": "cluster\_block\_exception",  
"reason": "blocked by: [FORBIDDEN/4/index closed];"  
},  
"status": 403  
}

3. POST\_watcher/\_open  
{  
"error": {  
"root\_cause": [  
{  
"type": "illegal\_argument\_exception",  
"reason": "No feature for name [\_open]"  
}  
],  
"type": "illegal\_argument\_exception",  
"reason": "No feature for name [\_open]"  
},  
"status": 400  
}

4. .triggered\_watches/\_open - worked

5. POST \_watcher/watch/\_open  
{  
"error": {  
"root\_cause": [  
{  
"type": "cluster\_block\_exception",  
"reason": "blocked by: [FORBIDDEN/4/index closed];"  
}  
],  
"type": "cluster\_block\_exception",  
"reason": "blocked by: [FORBIDDEN/4/index closed];"  
},  
"status": 403  
}

i reconfirm that watcher plugin is installed on all ES nodes.

Thanks & Regards,  
Piyush Tekade

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![skearns](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/skearns/32/125945_2.png) [@skearns](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/skearns)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-index-closed-error/65053/2 "2016-11-04T19:14:03Z")

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The watcher API is at `_watcher`, but the actual watches index is `.watches` Try opening or deleting that index. You may need to restart watcher to have it take effect.

Thanks,  
Steve

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![piyush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecb155/32.png) [@piyush](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/piyush)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-index-closed-error/65053/3 "2016-11-04T20:27:49Z")

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It worked, Thanks.

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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:** [July 6, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-index-closed-error/65053/4 "2017-07-06T13:42:10Z")

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