Alias

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"
      }
    }
  ]
}

copy

Example response

{
    "acknowledged": true
}

For more alias API operations, see Index aliases.