diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestService.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestService.java
index cbc985ea4215c..e4673e6ccbe72 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestService.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestService.java
@@ -722,7 +722,8 @@ public void onFailure(Exception e) {
                         executePipelines(pipelines, indexRequest, ingestDocument, documentListener);
                         indexRequest.setPipelinesHaveRun();
 
-                        documentParsingObserver.setIndexName(indexRequest.index());
+                        assert actionRequest.index() != null;
+                        documentParsingObserver.setIndexName(actionRequest.index());
                         documentParsingObserver.close();
 
                         i++;