# What version a node is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 5, 2021, 11:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-version-a-node-is/277821 "2021-07-05T11:21:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Seixas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/daniel_seixas/32/91164_2.png) [@Daniel\_Seixas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Daniel_Seixas)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2021, 11:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-version-a-node-is/277821/1 "2021-07-05T11:21:35Z")
Hi, Hope you can help me here. I did an upgrade of ES a few months ago to ES7.x . I was creating a new index but wanted to maintain the old one. The problem I have is that I cannot use the older index, not sure what went wrong but I can't access the info. So I want to run two separate instances of ES which is feasible. The problem is that I don't know which version was installed before the upgrade. Can you tell me how to identify the previous node version? The error I get when opening the old index with ES6.1 is: [node\_meta\_data] unknown field [node\_version], parser not found Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance ---
**Author:** ![ebuildy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ebuildy/32/6070_2.png) [@ebuildy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ebuildy)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2021, 12:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-version-a-node-is/277821/2 "2021-07-05T12:00:28Z")
Hello, ES 7 support: - minimum\_index\_compatibility\_version: "6.0.0-beta1" Maybe your index have been created at v7? ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-version-a-node-is/277821/3 "2021-07-06T01:32:31Z")
Welcome to our community! 😃 > [@Daniel\_Seixas](#): > > The problem I have is that I cannot use the older index, not sure what went wrong but I can't access the info What do you mean here? > [@Daniel\_Seixas](#): > > Can you tell me how to identify the previous node version? The output from the `_cluster/stats?pretty&human` API will show what version of Elasticsearch the indices in the cluster were made in. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Seixas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/daniel_seixas/32/91164_2.png) [@Daniel\_Seixas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Daniel_Seixas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 8:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-version-a-node-is/277821/4 "2021-07-06T08:50:01Z")
First of all thanks for your answers... I'll try to explain myself better. I had an index working in a ES version (I don't know which one), in order to explain myself better, I'll call this index _legacy_. A few months ago the project had a major overhaul and I updated the ES Version to 7.13. This overhaul included creating a new index bc the project had different info. I made a backup of the _legacy_ index node files and tried to update. But now, in the ES7 I can't access to the _legacy_ index. Then I tried installing previous versions of ES (6.1 and 6.8) but none of those seem to be able to open the _legacy_ index, showing the error "[node\_meta\_data] unknown field [node\_version], parser not found". So, right now I have the _legacy_ index node files and no way to access the info. Can anyone help me access the info stored in it or how to find out which version it was created ? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 10:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-version-a-node-is/277821/5 "2021-07-06T10:01:55Z")
> [@Daniel\_Seixas](#): > > I made a backup of the _legacy_ index node files Do you mean you just copied the files from disk, or do you mean you [took a snapshot](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/snapshot-restore.html)? If you have a snapshot then you can set up a new 6.8 cluster and restore it into that. If you just copied the files then note the warning in the docs: > **WARNING** : **The only reliable and supported way to back up a cluster is by taking a snapshot**. You cannot back up an Elasticsearch cluster by making copies of the data directories of its nodes. There are no supported methods to restore any data from a filesystem-level backup. > [@Daniel\_Seixas](#): > > showing the error "[node\_meta\_data] unknown field [node\_version], parser not found". This error occurs if you're trying to downgrade an Elasticsearch node in place, which won't work. Instead you'll need to create a new cluster running the older version, and restore a snapshot into it. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-version-a-node-is/277821/6 "2021-08-03T10:02:18Z")
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