Currently index templates are generated with python and then packaged with each beat. This has the disadvantage that with more ES versions more files have to be generated and packaged. In addition it does not allow to only provide a template for one metricbeat module for example. Generating the templates as part of the beat will allow to generate the needed templates on request and does not required anymore prepackage templates.

Implementation steps:

• Implement generation in Golang Implement index template generation in Golang #3603
  • Remove defaults from fields.common.yml for more flexibility Remove defaults from fields.common.yml for more flexibility #3602
  • Unify naming of fields.yml entries Rename object-type to object_type #3655
• Unify fields generated file across all beats Unify fields generated file across all beats #3677 Simplify template generation and handling #3683
• Set template order for seamless migrations: Increase priority of the 6.0 template to overwrite the 5.x settings #3657
• Implement dynamic generation of template when starting the beat Dynamically generate template on startup #3681
• Remove generated templates
• Reorganise template config options Improve and extend template and dashboard configurations #3921
• Add config option to generate json on disk Add the option to generate the template into a file #4323
• Add support to check elasticsearch version and generate templates accordingly
• Allow template generation per Metricbeat module (multiple template not supported by ES 6)
• Move manual template generation to beats-tools or something similar
• Identify how variables like number_of_shards could be easily set Template setting in the configuration file #4284
• Review the guides in the docs around template and dashboard loading.