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Elastic Docs ›Elasticsearch Guide [2.2] ›Indices APIs

Create Index

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Create Index

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The create index API allows to instantiate an index. Elasticsearch provides support for multiple indices, including executing operations across several indices.

Index Settings

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Each index created can have specific settings associated with it.

$ curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/'

$ curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/' -d '
index :
    number_of_shards : 3 
    number_of_replicas : 2 
'

Default for number_of_shards is 5

Default for number_of_replicas is 1 (ie one replica for each primary shard)

The above second curl example shows how an index called twitter can be created with specific settings for it using YAML. In this case, creating an index with 3 shards, each with 2 replicas. The index settings can also be defined with JSON:

$ curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/' -d '{
    "settings" : {
        "index" : {
            "number_of_shards" : 3,
            "number_of_replicas" : 2
        }
    }
}'

or more simplified

$ curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/' -d '{
    "settings" : {
        "number_of_shards" : 3,
        "number_of_replicas" : 2
    }
}'

You do not have to explicitly specify index section inside the settings section.

For more information regarding all the different index level settings that can be set when creating an index, please check the index modules section.

Mappings

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The create index API allows to provide a set of one or more mappings:

curl -XPOST localhost:9200/test -d '{
    "settings" : {
        "number_of_shards" : 1
    },
    "mappings" : {
        "type1" : {
            "properties" : {
                "field1" : { "type" : "string", "index" : "not_analyzed" }
            }
        }
    }
}'

Warmers

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The create index API allows also to provide a set of warmers:

curl -XPUT localhost:9200/test -d '{
    "warmers" : {
        "warmer_1" : {
            "source" : {
                "query" : {
                    ...
                }
            }
        }
    }
}'

Aliases

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The create index API allows also to provide a set of aliases:

curl -XPUT localhost:9200/test -d '{
    "aliases" : {
        "alias_1" : {},
        "alias_2" : {
            "filter" : {
                "term" : {"user" : "kimchy" }
            },
            "routing" : "kimchy"
        }
    }
}'

Creation Date

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When an index is created, a timestamp is stored in the index metadata for the creation date. By default this is automatically generated but it can also be specified using the creation_date parameter on the create index API:

curl -XPUT localhost:9200/test -d '{
    "creation_date" : 1407751337000 
}'

creation_date is set using epoch time in milliseconds.
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