---
title: Rejected indexing
description: Describes what AutoOps detects and surfaces with the Rejected indexing insight: One or more nodes are rejecting indexing requests.
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/autoops-insights/elasticsearch/rejected_indexing
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Enterprise
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted
  - Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes
  - Elasticsearch
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted: Generally available
  - Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes: Generally available
  - Elastic Cloud Enterprise: Generally available
  - Self-managed Elastic deployments: Generally available
---

# Rejected indexing
One or more nodes are rejecting indexing requests. Clients might lose data if they do not retry successfully.
<note>
  For a complete list of insights, refer to [AutoOps insights](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/autoops-insights/elasticsearch).
</note>


## Insight details


| Field     | Value                            |
|-----------|----------------------------------|
| Component | Elasticsearch                    |
| Severity  | High                             |
| Scope     | Node                             |
| Domains   | performance, indexing, stability |


## Customization settings

You can customize these settings to adjust when AutoOps detects this event and presents the insight. Refer to [AutoOps event settings](https://docs-edge.elastic.dev/docs/deploy-manage/monitor/autoops/ec-autoops-event-settings) for details.
The default customization settings are:

| Setting                             | Type    | Default |
|-------------------------------------|---------|---------|
| Rejected indexing count threshold   | Integer | `1`     |
| Consecutive samples above threshold | Integer | `1`     |

<tip>
  Raising these thresholds reduces noise but delays detection. Lowering them triggers the insight sooner but can increase alerts during minor blips.
</tip>


## Example: What you might see in AutoOps

The following is an example of what you might see when this insight is triggered. Real insights use live data and links from your deployment or cluster.

### Indexing requests are being rejected on es-data-01


#### What was detected

Indexing requests are being rejected on `es-data-01` and `es-data-02`.
- Indices with high indexing activity: `logs-prod-000045`


#### Recommendations

<note>
  AutoOps shows different recommendations depending on how their conditions match your deployment or cluster.
</note>

<dropdown title="Rollover indices">
  **Condition**: Shown when high-indexing activity is detected and if index has fewer primary shards than the available hot data nodes, or all data nodes when no hot role exists.If logs-prod-000045 are time-based, roll them over and set 1 primary shards on the new write index so you can avoid a heavy segment merge on the current indices.
</dropdown>

<dropdown title="Rollover indices by shard size">
  **Condition**: Shown when high-indexing activity is detected and if primary shard size > 30GB.If logs-prod-000045 are time-based, roll them over when average shard size reaches your target.
</dropdown>

<dropdown title="Review index templates and mappings">
  **Condition**: Shown when high-indexing activity is detected and for indexes with highest indexing latency.Review templates and mappings for logs-prod-000045; they strongly affect indexing performance. Fix oversized mappings, unnecessary fields, and inefficient index settings.
</dropdown>

<dropdown title="Review indexing slow logs">
  **Condition**: Shown when indexing rejections occur on the node.Enable indexing slow logs with the action below on logs-prod-000045, then review the logs to find slow index operations. On Elasticsearch 8.14+, set `index.indexing.slowlog.include.user` to `true` to record which user triggered a slow operation.
  ```json

  {
    "index.indexing.slowlog.threshold.index.warn": "10s",
    "index.indexing.slowlog.threshold.index.info": "5s",
    "index.indexing.slowlog.threshold.index.debug": "2s",
    "index.indexing.slowlog.threshold.index.trace": "500ms",
    "index.indexing.slowlog.source": "1000"
  }
  ```

  <note>
    Requires the `manage` index privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
  </note>
</dropdown>

<dropdown title="Add data node">
  **Condition**: Shown when high-indexing activity is detected and if index has more primary shards than the available hot data nodes, or all data nodes when no hot role exists.Add a data node to increase capacity and reduce pressure on the existing nodes.
</dropdown>


#### Background and impact

When Elasticsearch rejects indexing requests, writes fail at the client. Without successful retries, data can lag or be lost.
Rejections often follow sustained ingest pressure: a full or backed-up write thread pool, documents that do not match the index mapping, indices put into read-only mode at the flood-stage disk watermark, or circuit breakers that trip while processing bulks.
If rejections continue, ingest stays unreliable until pressure drops, mappings and disk pressure are fixed, or capacity increases.