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Alias

Introduced 1.0

An alias is a virtual pointer that you can use to reference one or more indexes. Creating and updating aliases are atomic operations, so you can reindex your data and point an alias at it without any downtime.

Path and HTTP methods

POST _aliases

Query parameters

All parameters are optional.

Parameter Data Type Description
cluster_manager_timeout Time The amount of time to wait for a response from the cluster manager node. Default is 30s.
timeout Time The amount of time to wait for a response from the cluster. Default is 30s.

Request body fields

In your request body, you need to specify what action to take, the alias name, and the index you want to associate with the alias. Other fields are optional.

Field Data Type Description Required
actions Array Set of actions you want to perform on the index. Valid options are: add, remove, and remove_index. You must have at least one action in the array. Yes
add N/A Adds an alias to the specified index. No
remove N/A Removes an alias from the specified index. No
remove_index N/A Deletes an index. No
index String Name of the index you want to associate with the alias. Supports wildcard expressions. Yes if you don’t supply an indices field in the body.
indices Array Array of index names you want to associate with the alias. Yes if you don’t supply an index field in the body.
alias String The name of the alias. Yes if you don’t supply an aliases field in the body.
aliases Array Array of alias names. Yes if you don’t supply an alias field in the body.
filter Object A filter to use with the alias, so the alias points to a filtered part of the index. No
is_hidden Boolean Specifies whether the alias should be hidden from results that include wildcard expressions No
must_exist Boolean Specifies whether the alias to remove must exist. No
is_write_index Boolean Specifies whether the index should be a write index. An alias can only have one write index at a time. If a write request is submitted to a alias that links to multiple indexes, OpenSearch executes the request only on the write index. No
routing String Used to assign a custom value to a shard for specific operations. No
index_routing String Assigns a custom value to a shard only for index operations. No
search_routing String Assigns a custom value to a shard only for search operations. No

Example request

POST _aliases
{
  "actions": [
    {
      "add": {
        "index": "movies",
        "alias": "movies-alias1"
      }
    },
    {
      "remove": {
        "index": "old-index",
        "alias": "old-index-alias"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Example response

{
    "acknowledged": true
}

For more alias API operations, see Index aliases.

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