elasdx is a command line tool to make ElasticSearch index template updates, reindexing and cleanup a more simple and CI-friendly process.

go get -u github.com/LGUG2Z/elasdx
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/LGUG2Z/elasdx
make install

export ELASDX_VERSION=x.x.x
curl -Lo elasdx.tar.gz https://github.com/LGUG2Z/elasdx/releases/download/v${ELASDX_VERSION}/elasdx_${ELASDX_VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
mkdir elasdx && tar -xzf elasdx.tar.gz -C elasdx && mv elasdx/elasdx /usr/local/bin/elasdx && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/elasdx && rm -rf elasdx.tar.gz elasdx

export ELASDX_VERSION=x.x.x
docker pull lgug2z/elasdx:${ELASDX_VERSION}
docker pull lgug2z/elasdx:latest

brew tap LGUG2Z/tap
brew install LGUG2Z/tap/elasdx

ElasticSearch provides a comprehensive API to do just about anything, so it's unfortunate that until now I have always been stuck writing bash scripts full of curl commands to interact with it. One of the most painful things to do with bash and curl when it comes to ElasticSearch is reindexing.

Typically this process requires the following steps:

• Make sure environment variables are set correctly
• Update a template:

curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/_template/template_1" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
  "index_patterns": ["te*", "bar*"],
  "settings": {
    "number_of_shards": 1
  },
  "mappings": {
    "_source": {
      "enabled": false
    },
    "properties": {
      "host_name": {
        "type": "keyword"
      },
      "created_at": {
        "type": "date",
        "format": "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy"
      }
    }
  }
}
'

• Create a new index:

curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/twitter"

• Update the settings on the index for bulk reindexing:

curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/twitter/_settings" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
    "index" : {
        "refresh_interval" : "-1"
    }
}
'

• Reindex from the old index to the new index:

curl -X POST "localhost:9200/_reindex" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
  "source": {
    "index": "twitter"
  },
  "dest": {
    "index": "new_twitter"
  }
}
'

• Set the desired refresh interval once the reindexing is done:

curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/twitter/_settings" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
    "index" : {
        "refresh_interval" : "1s"
    }
}
'

• Associate an alias with the new index:

curl -X POST "localhost:9200/_aliases" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
    "actions" : [
        { "add" : { "index" : "test1", "alias" : "alias1" } }
    ]
}
'

• Remove the old index from an alias:

curl -X POST "localhost:9200/_aliases" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
    "actions" : [
        { "remove" : { "index" : "test1", "alias" : "alias1" } }
    ]
}
'

• Clean up old indices:

curl -X DELETE "localhost:9200/twitter"

elasdx can operate either on a single index template json file or on a directory containing multiple index templates. The ElasticSearch URL can be set using the ELASDX_URL environment variable or using the --url command line flag. This value defaults to http://127.0.0.1:9200. If using basic auth, the username and password can be provided using the ELASDX_USERNAME, --username or ELASDX_PASSWORD, --password environment variables and flags respectively.

Optionally, elasdx can make a connection to an instance or a cluster at a https:// url without providing a valid certificate by setting either ELASDX_SKIP_VERIFY or --skip-verify.

The reindex command assumes either a file or a directory of files named to match the index template and the eventual alias desired.

Running elasdx reindex twitter.json would create or update an index template with the name twitter and create a new index and associate it with the alias twitter. Each new index will take the alias name and append a timestamp: twitter-2019-07-07-10:47:17.

If provisioning a fresh instance of ElasticSearch, this command will skip trying to reindex from a matching existing index and simply create a new index and associate it with the correct alias.

If reindexing, the --bulk-indexing flag can optionally be passed to optimise for bulk indexing by setting the refresh rate of the new index to -1 before restoring it to either the default refresh rate once the reindexing is finished, or to the refresh rate defined in the index template json file.

❯ elasdx reindex --bulk-indexing twitter.json
INDEX TEMPLATE   Updated     twitter
INDEX            Created     twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:40
DOCUMENTS        Reindexed   100 from twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:33 to twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:40
ALIAS            Removed     twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:33 from twitter
ALIAS            Added       twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:40 to twitter

// ❯ curl -X GET "localhost:9200/twitter/_settings" | jq
{
  "twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:40": {
    "settings": {
      "index": {
        "refresh_interval": "10s", // Desired refresh interval from template is set
        "number_of_shards": "5",
        "provided_name": "twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:40",
        "creation_date": "1562492836239",
        "number_of_replicas": "1",
        "uuid": "d9EkiyzwTMGt5-vaChULcQ",
        "version": {
          "created": "6020299"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The cleanup command is intended to work on the same file or directory structure used for the reindex command.

The maximum history of indices to keep is set using the --max-history flag, and defaults to 2, meaning that the current index associated with the alias and the previous index will be kept, and all other previous indices will be deleted. If --max-history is set to 0, all indices including the current index associated with the alias will be deleted; this can be useful during development.

❯ elasdx cleanup twitter.json
INDEX            Deleted     twitter-2019-07-07-10:15:31
INDEX            Deleted     twitter-2019-07-07-10:15:39
INDEX            Deleted     twitter-2019-07-07-10:47:15

❯ elasdx cleanup --max-history 0 twitter.json
INDEX            Deleted     twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:33
INDEX            Deleted     twitter-2019-07-07-10:54:40