Create an Elasticsearch index template

The starter dashboards require an index template with the following characteristics:

• Applies to the index pattern imspa-*

• Maps string fields to the keyword data type

• Enables data streams (note the data_stream object in the following sample)

Other characteristics of the index template are your choice.

Here is a starter index template for IMS Performance Analyzer data:

PUT _index_template/imspa
{
  "index_patterns": ["imspa-*"],
  "template": {
    "settings": {
      "lifecycle": {
        "name": "imspa-ilm-policy"
      }
    },
    "mappings": {
      "dynamic_templates": [ {
        "strings": {
          "match_mapping_type": "string",
          "mapping": {
            "type": "keyword"
          }
        }
      } ]
    }
  } ,
  "data_stream": { }
}

In template.settings.lifecycle.name, specify the name of the ILM policy that you want to use for IMS Performance Analyzer data.

No .raw fields

The index template maps all string fields to the keyword data type rather than the default text data type.

This mapping enables the starter dashboards to use the original field names for sorting and aggregation.

The starter dashboards do not need a separate .raw version of string fields.

Number of replicas

The starter index template does not specify a value for number_of_replicas.

Set the value of number_of_replicas to match your Elastic environment. The default value is 1.

If you are using a single-node Elastic environment—for example, you are testing these dashboards in a small "sandbox" environment—then there will be no replicas. In that case, if you use the default value of 1, then Elastic will report health issues due to the missing replicas. To avoid those health issues in a single-node environment, consider setting the number of replicas to 0:

  "template": {
    "settings": {
      "number_of_replicas": 0,
      "lifecycle": {
        "name": "imspa-ilm-policy"
      }
    },