jaegertracing/jaeger · error

ILM/ISM policy %s doesn't exist. Please create it and re-run

Error message

ILM/ISM policy %s doesn't exist. Please create it and re-run init

What it means

The rollover init action verifies that the configured ILM (Elasticsearch) or ISM (OpenSearch) policy exists before creating rollover aliases and indices. If the policy lookup succeeds but reports the policy missing, this actionable error is returned. Unlike other errors it is not wrapping a transport failure — it is a deliberate existence check.

Source

Thrown at cmd/es-rollover/app/init/action.go:33

// Action holds the configuration and clients for init action
type Action struct {
	Config        Config
	IndicesClient esclient.IndexAPI
	ILMClient     esclient.IndexManagementLifecycleAPI
}

// Do the init action
func (c Action) Do() error {
	ctx := context.TODO()
	if c.Config.UseILM {
		// Every supported backend provides lifecycle management (ILM on
		// Elasticsearch, ISM on OpenSearch), so no capability check is needed.
		policyExist, err := c.ILMClient.Exists(ctx, c.Config.ILMPolicyName)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		if !policyExist {
			return fmt.Errorf("ILM/ISM policy %s doesn't exist. Please create it and re-run init", c.Config.ILMPolicyName)
		}
	}
	rolloverIndices := app.RolloverIndices(c.Config.Archive, c.Config.SkipDependencies, c.Config.AdaptiveSampling, c.Config.Config.IndexPrefix)
	for _, indexName := range rolloverIndices {
		if err := c.init(ctx, indexName); err != nil {
			return err
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func createIndexIfNotExist(ctx context.Context, c esclient.IndexAPI, index string) error {
	exists, err := c.IndexExists(ctx, index)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if exists {
		return nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 806f444784)

Solutions

1. Run the Jaeger init command (e.g. `es-rollover init` counterpart that installs the policy / `jaeger-elasticsearch-init`) to create the policy first.
2. Check the policy name flag matches an existing policy (GET _ilm/policy or _plugins/_ism/policies).
3. Verify the credentials allow reading ILM/ISM policies.
4. Re-run `es-rollover init` after the policy exists, as the message instructs.

Example fix

// before
./es-rollover init $ES_URL   # policy jaeger-ilm-policy absent
// after
curl -X PUT $ES_URL/_ilm/policy/jaeger-ilm-policy -d @policy.json
./es-rollover init $ES_URL

policy := "jaeger-ilm-policy"
resp, err := http.Get(esURL + "/_ilm/policy/" + policy)
if err != nil || resp.StatusCode == 404 {
    return fmt.Errorf("policy %s missing; run init first", policy)
}
resp.Body.Close()

if err := action.Do(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "doesn't exist") {
        // provision the ILM/ISM policy, then re-run init
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `es-rollover init` when the ILM/ISM policy named by --ilm-policy-name (or default jaeger-ilm-policy / jaeger-ism-policy) was never created in the cluster, or Exists() returns false because the caller lacks permission to see it.

Common situations: Fresh Elasticsearch cluster where the separate `jaeger init` step that installs the policy was skipped; policy name mismatch between the flag and what was created; OpenSearch cluster still on a path where the policy was never provisioned; restricted user who cannot read the policy.

Related errors

• file must begin with '['
• max spans count reached
• empty configuration
• at least one storage backend is required
• cannot assign unique span ID, too many spans in the trace

AI-assisted analysis of jaegertracing/jaeger@806f444784 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b6a6f989c74af963. Report an issue: GitHub.