Configuring Elasticsearch Index settings

For an existing Elasticsearch index area, you can modify the index settings to update the number of shards, replicas, and, the maximum results window.

About this task

An Elasticsearch index has three index settings - number of shards, replicas, and maximum results window. For more information about the index settings, see topic Text search services for a Content Cortex domain. These three index settings are defined for an index area and are applied to the Elasticsearch index at index creation time. You can update these index settings for better indexing performance. The following table describes how the property value change impacts indexing performance:
Table 1. Index operations for updating index settings
Operation How is it applied to the index More information
Alter shards using server-side reindex operation The Elasticsearch engine creates destination index(mappings are automatically copied from the source index). The source index is read only during this operation. Reindexing is an asynchronous operation and it might take a considerable amount of time to complete. When the reindex operation is complete, the index name on the API object is replaced (the destination index name replaces the previous index name).
Alter shards using server-side split index operation The Content Engine creates the destination index and copies the mappings to the destination index. The source index is read only during this operation. Split indexing is an asynchronous operation and it is expected to be fairly fast. When the split index operation is complete, the index name on the API object is replaced (the destination index name replaces the previous index name).
Alter number of replicas Applied to existing index. Indexing is paused for the setting to be applied.
Alter maximum results window Applied to existing index. Indexing is paused for the setting to be applied.
Note:

When you update the index settings, the indexing queue is paused to avoid hammering Elasticsearch with requests that cannot be processed, and filling the Content Engine log file with errors.

Procedure

Use the steps to update an Elasticsearch index for an object store:

  1. Start the Administration Console for Content Platform Engine if you did not already do so.
  2. Log on as the GCD administrator (gcd_admin).
  3. Select an object store that is indexed by using Elasticsearch.
  4. In the object store navigation pane, select Administrative > Index Areas.
  5. From the list, select an index area that is indexed by using Elasticsearch.
  6. Open the Index tab for the selected index area.
    You can find the index properties for the selected index based on the index class that you select.
  7. Click Edit Configuration to edit the property values for shards, replicas, and maximum results window.
  8. In the next window, choose the property value that you want to alter.
    You can alter the shards by using split index or server-side reindex, alter the number of replicas or alter the maximum results window value.
  9. Enter new values for the property and complete the wizard.
    The alter operation pauses the indexing queue until the index settings change is processed. If the Edit Index Configuration fails, you can find the reason for failure under Last Failure Reason in the wizard.
  10. Wait for the operation to complete.
    The updated changes might take some time to reflect and the Edit Index Configuration does not appear until the operation is in progress.

What to do next

After configuring Elasticsearch index settings, you can create a full-text reindex job sweep to reindex CBR-enabled objects. For more information, see Creating a full-text reindex job sweep for Elasticsearch.