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Create index

Introduced 1.0

While you can create an index by using a document as a base, you can also just create an empty index for use later.

Example

The following example demonstrates how to create an index with a non-default number of primary and replica shards, specifies that age is of type integer, and assigns a sample-alias1 alias to the index.

PUT /sample-index1

{
  "settings": {
    "index": {
      "number_of_shards": 2,
      "number_of_replicas": 1
    }
  },
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "age": {
        "type": "integer"
      }
    }
  },
  "aliases": {
    "sample-alias1": {}
  }
}

Path and HTTP methods

PUT <index-name>

Index naming restrictions

OpenSearch indices have the following naming restrictions:

• All letters must be lowercase.
• Index names can’t begin with underscores (_) or hyphens (-).

• Index names can’t contain spaces, commas, or the following characters:

  :, ", *, +, /, \, |, ?, #, >, or <

URL parameters

You can include the following URL parameters in your request. All parameters are optional.

Request body

As part of your request, you can supply parameters in your request’s body that specify index settings, mappings, and aliases for your newly created index. The following sections provide more information about index settings and mappings.

Index settings

Index settings are separated into two varieties: static index settings and dynamic index settings. Static index settings are settings that you specify at index creation and can’t change later. You can change dynamic settings at any time, including at index creation.

Static index settings

Dynamic index Settings

Mappings

Mappings define how a documents and its fields are stored and indexed. If you’re just starting to build out your cluster and data, you may not know exactly how your data should be stored. In those cases, you can use dynamic mappings, which tell OpenSearch to dynamically add data and their fields. However, if you know exactly what types your data fall under and want to enforce that standard, then you can use explicit mappings.

For example, if you want to indicate that year should be of type text instead of an integer, and age should be an integer, you can do so with explicit mappings. Using dynamic mapping, OpenSearch might interpret both year and age as integers.

Dynamic mapping types

Explicit mapping

If you know exactly what your data’s typings need to be, you can specify them in your request body when creating your index.

{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "year":    { "type" : "text" },
      "age":     { "type" : "integer" },
      "director":{ "type" : "text" }
    }
  }
}

Response

{
    "acknowledged": true,
    "shards_acknowledged": true,
    "index": "sample-index1"
}