# What does index pattern consist of?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-index-pattern-consist-of/258163>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [December 9, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-index-pattern-consist-of/258163 "2020-12-09T16:47:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jhagen92](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jhagen92/32/80458_2.png) [@jhagen92](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jhagen92)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-index-pattern-consist-of/258163/1 "2020-12-09T16:47:50Z")

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Hi.

I am new to Kibana. I already have existing index patterns and logs, so I mostly worked with visualization and dashboard. However, I don't quite understand index pattern.

Can someone please explain index pattern in detail? I found [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/index-patterns.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/index-patterns.html), but I need little more understanding.

The reason why I am asking is when I export dashboard, it saves index pattern. When I import that json file to prod, it overwrites index pattern as well. I would like to understand what kind of changes that index pattern can have like fields or property.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![rashmi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rashmi/32/16391_2.png) [@rashmi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rashmi)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-index-pattern-consist-of/258163/2 "2020-12-09T17:23:46Z")

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Hi

welcome to kibana discuss forums. When a user loads up Kibana in their browser for the first time, they are required to create an index pattern. Of course, they can add more index patterns at a later time as well.

Whenever users create a new index pattern, a document is created in the `.kibana` index, under the `index-pattern` document type. Kibana does not automatically update index patterns, but there is an option in Management \> Index Patterns \> Your Index Pattern to refresh the list of fields based on what it finds in the indexes.  
Visualizations are tied to index-patterns, so on every environment you should have the same index-pattern configured with the same IDs.

You can read about index patterns in this blog - which gives a detailed description of it . Its a bit old blog, but most of it is still is relavant.

> **[Kibana under the hood: object persistence](https://www.elastic.co/blog/kibana-under-the-hood-object-persistence)**
>
> This blog post provides a glimpse into what's happening under the hood in Kibana when users save searches, visualizations, and dashboards.

Hope this helps,  
Thanks  
Rashmi

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-index-pattern-consist-of/258163/3 "2021-01-06T17:24:08Z")

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