Index templates

This topic describes the composable index templates introduced in Elasticsearch 7.8. For information about how index templates worked previously, see the legacy template documentation.

An index template is a way to tell Elasticsearch how to configure an index when it is created. For data streams, the index template configures the stream’s backing indices as they are created. Templates are configured prior to index creation and then when an index is created either manually or through indexing a document, the template settings are used as a basis for creating the index.

There are two types of templates, index templates and component templates. Component templates are reusable building blocks that configure mappings, settings, and aliases. You use component templates to construct index templates, they aren’t directly applied to a set of indices. Index templates can contain a collection of component templates, as well as directly specify settings, mappings, and aliases.

If a new data stream or index matches more than one index template, the index template with the highest priority is used.

Elasticsearch has built-in index templates for the metrics-*-* and logs-*-* index patterns, each with a priority of 100. Elastic Agent uses these templates to create data streams. If you use Elastic Agent, assign your index templates a priority lower than 100 to avoid an overriding the built-in templates.

Otherwise, to avoid accidentally applying the built-in templates, use a non-overlapping index pattern or assign templates with an overlapping pattern a priority higher than 100.

For example, if you don’t use Elastic Agent and want to create a template for the logs-* index pattern, assign your template a priority of 200. This ensures your template is applied instead of the built-in template for logs-*-*.

When a composable template matches a given index it always takes precedence over a legacy template. If no composable template matches, a legacy template may still match and be applied.

If an index is created with explicit settings and also matches an index template, the settings from the create index request take precedence over settings specified in the index template and its component templates.

  1. PUT _component_template/component_template1
  2. {
  3.   "template": {
  4.     "mappings": {
  5.       "properties": {
  6.         "@timestamp": {
  7.           "type": "date"
  8.         }
  9.       }
  10.     }
  11.   }
  12. }
  14. PUT _component_template/other_component_template
  15. {
  16.   "template": {
  17.     "mappings": {
  18.       "properties": {
  19.         "ip_address": {
  20.           "type": "ip"
  21.         }
  22.       }
  23.     }
  24.   }
  25. }
  27. PUT _index_template/template_1
  28. {
  29.   "index_patterns": ["te*", "bar*"],
  30.   "template": {
  31.     "settings": {
  32.       "number_of_shards": 1
  33.     },
  34.     "mappings": {
  35.       "properties": {
  36.         "host_name": {
  37.           "type": "keyword"
  38.         },
  39.         "created_at": {
  40.           "type": "date",
  41.           "format": "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy"
  42.         }
  43.       }
  44.     },
  45.     "aliases": {
  46.       "mydata": { }
  47.     }
  48.   },
  49.   "priority": 200,
  50.   "composed_of": ["component_template1", "other_component_template"],
  51.   "version": 3,
  52.   "_meta": {
  53.     "description": "my custom"
  54.   }
  55. }