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Docker image

You can pull the OpenSearch Docker image just like any other image:

docker pull opensearchproject/opensearch:latest
docker pull opensearchproject/opensearch-dashboards:latest

To check available versions, see Docker Hub.

OpenSearch images use amazonlinux:2 as the base image. If you run Docker locally, set Docker to use at least 4 GB of RAM in Preferences > Resources.

Table of contents

1. Run the image
2. Start a cluster
3. Configure OpenSearch
   1. (Optional) Set up Performance Analyzer
4. Bash access to containers
5. Customize the Docker image
6. Sample Docker Compose file for development

Run the image

To run the image for local development:

docker run -p 9200:9200 -p 9600:9600 -e "discovery.type=single-node" opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4

Then send requests to the server to verify that OpenSearch is up and running:

curl -XGET https://localhost:9200 -u 'admin:admin' --insecure
curl -XGET https://localhost:9200/_cat/nodes?v -u 'admin:admin' --insecure
curl -XGET https://localhost:9200/_cat/plugins?v -u 'admin:admin' --insecure

To find the container ID:

docker ps

Then you can stop the container using:

docker stop <container-id>

Start a cluster

To deploy multiple nodes and simulate a more realistic deployment, create a docker-compose.yml file appropriate for your environment and run:

docker-compose up

To stop the cluster, run:

docker-compose down

To stop the cluster and delete all data volumes, run:

docker-compose down -v

If you’re running your cluster in a production environment, be sure to refer to Important settings when configuring your machine and cluster.

Sample Docker Compose file

This sample file starts two data nodes and a container for OpenSearch Dashboards.

version: '3'
services:
  opensearch-node1:
    image: opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4
    container_name: opensearch-node1
    environment:
      - cluster.name=opensearch-cluster
      - node.name=opensearch-node1
      - discovery.seed_hosts=opensearch-node1,opensearch-node2
      - cluster.initial_master_nodes=opensearch-node1,opensearch-node2
      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true # along with the memlock settings below, disables swapping
      - "OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m" # minimum and maximum Java heap size, recommend setting both to 50% of system RAM
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
      nofile:
        soft: 65536 # maximum number of open files for the OpenSearch user, set to at least 65536 on modern systems
        hard: 65536
    volumes:
      - opensearch-data1:/usr/share/opensearch/data
    ports:
      - 9200:9200
      - 9600:9600 # required for Performance Analyzer
    networks:
      - opensearch-net
  opensearch-node2:
    image: opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4
    container_name: opensearch-node2
    environment:
      - cluster.name=opensearch-cluster
      - node.name=opensearch-node2
      - discovery.seed_hosts=opensearch-node1,opensearch-node2
      - cluster.initial_master_nodes=opensearch-node1,opensearch-node2
      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
      - "OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m"
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
      nofile:
        soft: 65536
        hard: 65536
    volumes:
      - opensearch-data2:/usr/share/opensearch/data
    networks:
      - opensearch-net
  opensearch-dashboards:
    image: opensearchproject/opensearch-dashboards:1.2.0
    container_name: opensearch-dashboards
    ports:
      - 5601:5601
    expose:
      - "5601"
    environment:
      OPENSEARCH_HOSTS: '["https://opensearch-node1:9200","https://opensearch-node2:9200"]' # must be a string with no spaces when specified as an environment variable
    networks:
      - opensearch-net

volumes:
  opensearch-data1:
  opensearch-data2:

networks:
  opensearch-net:

If you override opensearch_dashboards.yml settings using environment variables, as seen above, use all uppercase letters and periods in place of underscores (e.g. for opensearch.hosts, use OPENSEARCH_HOSTS).

Configure OpenSearch

You can pass a custom opensearch.yml file to the Docker container using the -v flag for docker run:

docker run \
-p 9200:9200 -p 9600:9600 \
-e "discovery.type=single-node" \
-v /<full-path-to>/custom-opensearch.yml:/usr/share/opensearch/config/opensearch.yml \
opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4

You can perform the same operation in docker-compose.yml using a relative path:

services:
  opensearch-node1:
    volumes:
      - opensearch-data1:/usr/share/opensearch/data
      - ./custom-opensearch.yml:/usr/share/opensearch/config/opensearch.yml
  opensearch-node2:
    volumes:
      - opensearch-data2:/usr/share/opensearch/data
      - ./custom-opensearch.yml:/usr/share/opensearch/config/opensearch.yml
  opensearch-dashboards:
    volumes:
      - ./custom-opensearch_dashboards.yml:/usr/share/opensearch-dashboards/config/opensearch_dashboards.yml

You can also configure docker-compose.yml and opensearch.yml to take your own certificates for use with the Security plugin.

(Optional) Set up Performance Analyzer

1. Enable the Performance Analyzer plugin:

   curl -XPOST localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}'
   

   If you receive the curl: (52) Empty reply from server error, you are likely protecting your cluster with the security plugin and you need to provide credentials. Modify the following command to use your username and password:

   curl -XPOST https://localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}' -u 'admin:admin' -k
   

2. Enable the Root Cause Analyzer (RCA) framework

   curl -XPOST localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/rca/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}'
   

   Similar to step 1, if you run into curl: (52) Empty reply from server, run the command below to enable RCA

   curl -XPOST https://localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/rca/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}' -u 'admin:admin' -k
   

3. By default, Performance Analyzer’s endpoints are not accessible from outside the Docker container.

   To edit this behavior, open a shell session in the container and modify the configuration:

   docker ps # Look up the container id
   docker exec -it <container-id> /bin/bash
   # Inside container
   cd plugins/opensearch_performance_analyzer/pa_config/
   vi performance-analyzer.properties
   

   Uncomment the line #webservice-bind-host and set it to 0.0.0.0:

   # ======================== OpenSearch performance analyzer plugin config =========================
   
   # NOTE: this is an example for Linux. Please modify the config accordingly if you are using it under other OS.
   
   # WebService bind host; default to all interfaces
   webservice-bind-host = 0.0.0.0
   
   # Metrics data location
   metrics-location = /dev/shm/performanceanalyzer/
   
   # Metrics deletion interval (minutes) for metrics data.
   # Interval should be between 1 to 60.
   metrics-deletion-interval = 1
   
   # If set to true, the system cleans up the files behind it. So at any point, we should expect only 2
   # metrics-db-file-prefix-path files. If set to false, no files are cleaned up. This can be useful, if you are archiving
   # the files and wouldn't like for them to be cleaned up.
   cleanup-metrics-db-files = true
   
   # WebService exposed by App's port
   webservice-listener-port = 9600
   
   # Metric DB File Prefix Path location
   metrics-db-file-prefix-path = /tmp/metricsdb_
   
   https-enabled = false
   
   #Setup the correct path for certificates
   certificate-file-path = specify_path
   
   private-key-file-path = specify_path
   
   # Plugin Stats Metadata file name, expected to be in the same location
   plugin-stats-metadata = plugin-stats-metadata
   
   # Agent Stats Metadata file name, expected to be in the same location
   agent-stats-metadata = agent-stats-metadata
   

4. Then restart the Performance Analyzer agent:

   kill $(ps aux | grep -i 'PerformanceAnalyzerApp' | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}')
   

Bash access to containers

To create an interactive Bash session in a container, run docker ps to find the container ID. Then run:

docker exec -it <container-id> /bin/bash

Customize the Docker image

To run the image with a custom plugin, first create a Dockerfile:

FROM opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4
RUN /usr/share/opensearch/bin/opensearch-plugin install --batch <plugin-name-or-url>

Then run the following commands:

docker build --tag=opensearch-custom-plugin .
docker run -p 9200:9200 -p 9600:9600 -v /usr/share/opensearch/data opensearch-custom-plugin

You can also use a Dockerfile to pass your own certificates for use with the security plugin, similar to the -v argument in Configure OpenSearch:

FROM opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4
COPY --chown=opensearch:opensearch opensearch.yml /usr/share/opensearch/config/
COPY --chown=opensearch:opensearch my-key-file.pem /usr/share/opensearch/config/
COPY --chown=opensearch:opensearch my-certificate-chain.pem /usr/share/opensearch/config/
COPY --chown=opensearch:opensearch my-root-cas.pem /usr/share/opensearch/config/

Alternately, you might want to remove a plugin. This Dockerfile removes the security plugin:

FROM opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4
RUN /usr/share/opensearch/bin/opensearch-plugin remove opensearch-security
COPY --chown=opensearch:opensearch opensearch.yml /usr/share/opensearch/config/

In this case, opensearch.yml is a “vanilla” version of the file with no plugin entries. It might look like this:

cluster.name: "docker-cluster"
network.host: 0.0.0.0

Sample Docker Compose file for development

You can use this sample file as a development environment.

This sample file starts one OpenSearch node and a container for OpenSearch Dashboards with the security plugin disabled.

version: '3'
services:
  opensearch-node1:
    image: opensearchproject/opensearch:1.2.4
    container_name: opensearch-node1
    environment:
      - cluster.name=opensearch-cluster
      - node.name=opensearch-node1
      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true # along with the memlock settings below, disables swapping
      - "OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m" # minimum and maximum Java heap size, recommend setting both to 50% of system RAM
      - "DISABLE_INSTALL_DEMO_CONFIG=true" # disables execution of install_demo_configuration.sh bundled with security plugin, which installs demo certificates and security configurations to OpenSearch
      - "DISABLE_SECURITY_PLUGIN=true" # disables security plugin entirely in OpenSearch by setting plugins.security.disabled: true in opensearch.yml
      - "discovery.type=single-node" # disables bootstrap checks that are enabled when network.host is set to a non-loopback address
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
      nofile:
        soft: 65536 # maximum number of open files for the OpenSearch user, set to at least 65536 on modern systems
        hard: 65536
    volumes:
      - opensearch-data1:/usr/share/opensearch/data
    ports:
      - 9200:9200
      - 9600:9600 # required for Performance Analyzer
    networks:
      - opensearch-net

  opensearch-dashboards:
    image: opensearchproject/opensearch-dashboards:1.2.0
    container_name: opensearch-dashboards
    ports:
      - 5601:5601
    expose:
      - "5601"
    environment:
      - 'OPENSEARCH_HOSTS=["http://opensearch-node1:9200"]'
      - "DISABLE_SECURITY_DASHBOARDS_PLUGIN=true" # disables security dashboards plugin in OpenSearch Dashboards
    networks:
      - opensearch-net

volumes:
  opensearch-data1:

networks:
  opensearch-net:

The environment variable "DISABLE_SECURITY_DASHBOARDS_PLUGIN=true" disables the security dashboards plugin in OpenSearch Dashboards by removing the security dashboards plugin folder, removing all related settings in the opensearch_dashboards.yml file, and setting the opensearch.hosts entry protocol from HTTPS to HTTP. You can’t reverse this step as the security dashboards plugin is removed in the process. To re-enable security for OpenSearch Dashboards, start a new container and set DISABLE_SECURITY_DASHBOARDS_PLUGIN to false or leave it unset.