indices.%s.rotation: exactly one rotation strategy must be s

Error message

indices.%s.rotation: exactly one rotation strategy must be set, found %d

What it means

Each index's rotation section must specify exactly one rotation strategy (e.g. periodic) — zero or multiple set strategies are rejected. validate counts the strategies that have values and errors when count > 1 with the actual number found.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/elasticsearch/config/config_rotation.go:158

	return nil
}

func (r *RotationConfig) validate(indexType string) error {
	count := 0
	if r.Periodic.HasValue() {
		count++
	}
	if r.ManualRollover.HasValue() {
		count++
	}
	if r.AutoRollover.HasValue() {
		count++
	}
	if r.DataStream.HasValue() {
		count++
	}
	if count > 1 {
		return fmt.Errorf(
			"indices.%s.rotation: exactly one rotation strategy must be set, found %d",
			indexType, count,
		)
	}
	if r.DataStream.HasValue() {
		return fmt.Errorf(
			"indices.%s.rotation: data_stream is not yet implemented",
			indexType,
		)
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 806f444784)

Solutions

Keep exactly one strategy field set under indices.<type>.rotation
Delete the extra strategy entries
Use rotation.periodic for time-based rollover (data_stream is not supported yet)

Example fix

// before
rotation:
  periodic:
    days: 1
  data_stream: {}
// after
rotation:
  periodic:
    days: 1

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

count := 0
if r.Periodic.HasValue() { count++ }
if r.DataStream.HasValue() { count++ }
if count != 1 {
    return fmt.Errorf("rotation must set exactly one strategy, found %d", count)
}

Prevention

Set only one strategy field per index rotation block
Never template out all strategy fields; template only the chosen one
Review generated YAML before applying

When it happens

Trigger: Setting more than one rotation strategy (e.g. both a periodic-style option and data_stream, or two strategy fields) under indices.<type>.rotation and calling validate via Validate or rotation tests.

Common situations: Copy-pasting example YAMLs that each used a different strategy into one rotation block; a migration script that writes all strategy fields unconditionally.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jaegertracing/jaeger@806f444784 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1253a89b046ad6c2. Report an issue: GitHub.