Index aliases in Elasticsearch - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Managing Index Aliases in Elasticsearch

📖 Scenario: You are managing a small Elasticsearch cluster for a local bookstore. You want to organize your data so that you can easily switch between different versions of your book catalog without downtime.

🎯 Goal: Build an Elasticsearch setup where you create an index, add an alias to it, update the alias to point to a new index, and finally verify the alias points correctly.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an index named books_v1 with a simple mapping

Create an alias named current_books pointing to books_v1

Create a new index named books_v2 with the same mapping

Update the alias current_books to point from books_v1 to books_v2

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Index aliases help manage data versions and enable smooth upgrades without downtime in search applications.

💼 Career

Understanding index aliases is essential for Elasticsearch administrators and developers to maintain and upgrade search systems efficiently.

1

Create the initial index books_v1

Use the Elasticsearch PUT request to create an index called books_v1 with a mapping that has a title field of type text.

Elasticsearch

# Use PUT /books_v1 with mapping for title field
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the PUT method with the index name books_v1 and define the mapping inside mappings.properties.

2

Create an alias current_books for books_v1

Use the Elasticsearch POST request to add an alias called current_books that points to the index books_v1.

Elasticsearch

PUT /books_v1
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "title": { "type": "text" }
    }
  }
}

# Add alias current_books to books_v1
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the POST /_aliases endpoint with an actions array containing an add action.

3

Create a new index books_v2 with the same mapping

Create another index called books_v2 with the same mapping as books_v1 using a PUT request.

Elasticsearch

PUT /books_v1
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "title": { "type": "text" }
    }
  }
}

POST /_aliases
{
  "actions": [
    { "add": { "index": "books_v1", "alias": "current_books" } }
  ]
}

# Create books_v2 index with same mapping
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Repeat the PUT request for books_v2 with the same mapping as books_v1.

4

Update alias current_books to point to books_v2

Use the POST /_aliases request to atomically remove the alias current_books from books_v1 and add it to books_v2.

Elasticsearch

PUT /books_v1
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "title": { "type": "text" }
    }
  }
}

POST /_aliases
{
  "actions": [
    { "add": { "index": "books_v1", "alias": "current_books" } }
  ]
}

PUT /books_v2
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "title": { "type": "text" }
    }
  }
}

# Update alias current_books to point to books_v2 instead of books_v1
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a single POST /_aliases request with actions to remove and add the alias atomically.