Bulk API

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Performs multiple indexing or delete operations in a single API call. This reduces overhead and can greatly increase indexing speed.

POST _bulk
{ "index" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "1" } }
{ "field1" : "value1" }
{ "delete" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "2" } }
{ "create" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "3" } }
{ "field1" : "value3" }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "1", "_index" : "test"} }
{ "doc" : {"field2" : "value2"} }

Request

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POST /_bulk

POST /<target>/_bulk

Prerequisites

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  • If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the following index privileges for the target data stream, index, or index alias:

    • To use the create action, you must have the create_doc, create, index, or write index privilege. Data streams support only the create action.
    • To use the index action, you must have the create, index, or write index privilege.
    • To use the delete action, you must have the delete or write index privilege.
    • To use the update action, you must have the index or write index privilege.
    • To automatically create a data stream or index with a bulk API request, you must have the auto_configure, create_index, or manage index privilege.
  • Automatic data stream creation requires a matching index template with data stream enabled. See Set up a data stream.

Description

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Provides a way to perform multiple index, create, delete, and update actions in a single request.

The actions are specified in the request body using a newline delimited JSON (NDJSON) structure:

action_and_meta_data\n
optional_source\n
action_and_meta_data\n
optional_source\n
....
action_and_meta_data\n
optional_source\n

The index and create actions expect a source on the next line, and have the same semantics as the op_type parameter in the standard index API: create fails if a document with the same ID already exists in the target, index adds or replaces a document as necessary.

Data streams support only the create action. To update or delete a document in a data stream, you must target the backing index containing the document. See Update or delete documents in a backing index.

update expects that the partial doc, upsert, and script and its options are specified on the next line.

delete does not expect a source on the next line and has the same semantics as the standard delete API.

The final line of data must end with a newline character \n. Each newline character may be preceded by a carriage return \r. When sending requests to the _bulk endpoint, the Content-Type header should be set to application/x-ndjson.

Because this format uses literal \n's as delimiters, make sure that the JSON actions and sources are not pretty printed.

If you provide a <target> in the request path, it is used for any actions that don’t explicitly specify an _index argument.

A note on the format: The idea here is to make processing of this as fast as possible. As some of the actions are redirected to other shards on other nodes, only action_meta_data is parsed on the receiving node side.

Client libraries using this protocol should try and strive to do something similar on the client side, and reduce buffering as much as possible.

There is no "correct" number of actions to perform in a single bulk request. Experiment with different settings to find the optimal size for your particular workload.

When using the HTTP API, make sure that the client does not send HTTP chunks, as this will slow things down.

Client support for bulk requests
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Some of the officially supported clients provide helpers to assist with bulk requests and reindexing:

Submitting bulk requests with cURL
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If you’re providing text file input to curl, you must use the --data-binary flag instead of plain -d. The latter doesn’t preserve newlines. Example:

$ cat requests
{ "index" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "1" } }
{ "field1" : "value1" }
$ curl -s -H "Content-Type: application/x-ndjson" -XPOST localhost:9200/_bulk --data-binary "@requests"; echo
{"took":7, "errors": false, "items":[{"index":{"_index":"test","_type":"_doc","_id":"1","_version":1,"result":"created","forced_refresh":false}}]}
Optimistic concurrency control
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Each index and delete action within a bulk API call may include the if_seq_no and if_primary_term parameters in their respective action and meta data lines. The if_seq_no and if_primary_term parameters control how operations are executed, based on the last modification to existing documents. See Optimistic concurrency control for more details.

Versioning
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Each bulk item can include the version value using the version field. It automatically follows the behavior of the index / delete operation based on the _version mapping. It also support the version_type (see versioning).

Routing
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Each bulk item can include the routing value using the routing field. It automatically follows the behavior of the index / delete operation based on the _routing mapping.

Data streams do not support custom routing. Instead, target the appropriate backing index for the stream.

Wait for active shards
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When making bulk calls, you can set the wait_for_active_shards parameter to require a minimum number of shard copies to be active before starting to process the bulk request. See here for further details and a usage example.

Refresh
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Control when the changes made by this request are visible to search. See refresh.

Only the shards that receive the bulk request will be affected by refresh. Imagine a _bulk?refresh=wait_for request with three documents in it that happen to be routed to different shards in an index with five shards. The request will only wait for those three shards to refresh. The other two shards that make up the index do not participate in the _bulk request at all.

Security
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See URL-based access control.

Path parameters

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<target>
(Optional, string) Name of the data stream, index, or index alias to perform bulk actions on.

Query parameters

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pipeline
(Optional, string) ID of the pipeline to use to preprocess incoming documents.
refresh
(Optional, enum) If true, Elasticsearch refreshes the affected shards to make this operation visible to search, if wait_for then wait for a refresh to make this operation visible to search, if false do nothing with refreshes. Valid values: true, false, wait_for. Default: false.
require_alias
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the request’s actions must target an index alias. Defaults to false.
routing
(Optional, string) Custom value used to route operations to a specific shard.
_source
(Optional, string) True or false to return the _source field or not, or a list of fields to return.
_source_excludes

(Optional, string) A comma-separated list of source fields to exclude from the response.

You can also use this parameter to exclude fields from the subset specified in _source_includes query parameter.

If the _source parameter is false, this parameter is ignored.

_source_includes

(Optional, string) A comma-separated list of source fields to include in the response.

If this parameter is specified, only these source fields are returned. You can exclude fields from this subset using the _source_excludes query parameter.

If the _source parameter is false, this parameter is ignored.

timeout

(Optional, time units) Period each action waits for the following operations:

Defaults to 1m (one minute). This guarantees Elasticsearch waits for at least the timeout before failing. The actual wait time could be longer, particularly when multiple waits occur.

wait_for_active_shards

(Optional, string) The number of shard copies that must be active before proceeding with the operation. Set to all or any positive integer up to the total number of shards in the index (number_of_replicas+1). Default: 1, the primary shard.

See Active shards.

Request body

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The request body contains a newline-delimited list of create, delete, index, and update actions and their associated source data.

create

(Optional, string) Indexes the specified document if it does not already exist. The following line must contain the source data to be indexed.

_index
(Optional, string) Name of the data stream, index, or index alias to perform the action on. This parameter is required if a <target> is not specified in the request path.
_id
(Optional, string) The document ID. If no ID is specified, a document ID is automatically generated.
require_alias
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the action must target an index alias. Defaults to false.
delete

(Optional, string) Removes the specified document from the index.

_index
(Optional, string) Name of the data stream, index, or index alias to perform the action on. This parameter is required if a <target> is not specified in the request path.
_id
(Required, string) The document ID.
require_alias
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the action must target an index alias. Defaults to false.
index

(Optional, string) Indexes the specified document. If the document exists, replaces the document and increments the version. The following line must contain the source data to be indexed.

_index
(Optional, string) Name of the data stream, index, or index alias to perform the action on. This parameter is required if a <target> is not specified in the request path.
_id
(Optional, string) The document ID. If no ID is specified, a document ID is automatically generated.
require_alias
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the action must target an index alias. Defaults to false.
update

(Optional, string) Performs a partial document update. The following line must contain the partial document and update options.

_index
(Optional, string) Name of the data stream, index, or index alias to perform the action on. This parameter is required if a <target> is not specified in the request path.
_id
(Required, string) The document ID.
require_alias
(Optional, Boolean) If true, the action must target an index alias. Defaults to false.
doc
(Optional, object) The partial document to index. Required for update operations.
<fields>
(Optional, object) The document source to index. Required for create and index operations.

Response body

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The bulk API’s response contains the individual results of each operation in the request, returned in the order submitted. The success or failure of an individual operation does not affect other operations in the request.

took
(integer) How long, in milliseconds, it took to process the bulk request.
errors
(Boolean) If true, one or more of the operations in the bulk request did not complete successfully.
items

(array of objects) Contains the result of each operation in the bulk request, in the order they were submitted.

Properties of items objects
<action>

(object) The parameter name is an action associated with the operation. Possible values are create, delete, index, and update.

The parameter value is an object that contains information for the associated operation.

Properties of <action>
_index
(string) Name of the index associated with the operation. If the operation targeted a data stream, this is the backing index into which the document was written.
_type
(string) The document type associated with the operation. Elasticsearch indices now support a single document type: _doc. See Removal of mapping types.
_id
(integer) The document ID associated with the operation.
_version

(integer) The document version associated with the operation. The document version is incremented each time the document is updated.

This parameter is only returned for successful actions.

result

(string) Result of the operation. Successful values are created, deleted, and updated.

This parameter is only returned for successful operations.

_shards

(object) Contains shard information for the operation.

This parameter is only returned for successful operations.

Properties of _shards
total
(integer) Number of shards the operation attempted to execute on.
successful
(integer) Number of shards the operation succeeded on.
failed
(integer) Number of shards the operation attempted to execute on but failed.
_seq_no

(integer) The sequence number assigned to the document for the operation. Sequence numbers are used to ensure an older version of a document doesn’t overwrite a newer version. See Optimistic concurrency control.

This parameter is only returned for successful operations.

_primary_term

(integer) The primary term assigned to the document for the operation. See Optimistic concurrency control.

This parameter is only returned for successful operations.

status
(integer) HTTP status code returned for the operation.
error

(object) Contains additional information about the failed operation.

The parameter is only returned for failed operations.

Properties of error
type
(string) Error type for the operation.
reason
(string) Reason for the failed operation.
index_uuid
(string) The universally unique identifier (UUID) of the index associated with the failed operation.
shard
(string) ID of the shard associated with the failed operation.
index
(string) Name of the index associated with the failed operation. If the operation targeted a data stream, this is the backing index into which the document was attempted to be written.

Examples

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POST _bulk
{ "index" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "1" } }
{ "field1" : "value1" }
{ "delete" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "2" } }
{ "create" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "3" } }
{ "field1" : "value3" }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "1", "_index" : "test"} }
{ "doc" : {"field2" : "value2"} }

The API returns the following result:

{
   "took": 30,
   "errors": false,
   "items": [
      {
         "index": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_type": "_doc",
            "_id": "1",
            "_version": 1,
            "result": "created",
            "_shards": {
               "total": 2,
               "successful": 1,
               "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 201,
            "_seq_no" : 0,
            "_primary_term": 1
         }
      },
      {
         "delete": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_type": "_doc",
            "_id": "2",
            "_version": 1,
            "result": "not_found",
            "_shards": {
               "total": 2,
               "successful": 1,
               "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 404,
            "_seq_no" : 1,
            "_primary_term" : 2
         }
      },
      {
         "create": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_type": "_doc",
            "_id": "3",
            "_version": 1,
            "result": "created",
            "_shards": {
               "total": 2,
               "successful": 1,
               "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 201,
            "_seq_no" : 2,
            "_primary_term" : 3
         }
      },
      {
         "update": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_type": "_doc",
            "_id": "1",
            "_version": 2,
            "result": "updated",
            "_shards": {
                "total": 2,
                "successful": 1,
                "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 200,
            "_seq_no" : 3,
            "_primary_term" : 4
         }
      }
   ]
}
Bulk update example
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When using the update action, retry_on_conflict can be used as a field in the action itself (not in the extra payload line), to specify how many times an update should be retried in the case of a version conflict.

The update action payload supports the following options: doc (partial document), upsert, doc_as_upsert, script, params (for script), lang (for script), and _source. See update documentation for details on the options. Example with update actions:

POST _bulk
{ "update" : {"_id" : "1", "_index" : "index1", "retry_on_conflict" : 3} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"} }
{ "update" : { "_id" : "0", "_index" : "index1", "retry_on_conflict" : 3} }
{ "script" : { "source": "ctx._source.counter += params.param1", "lang" : "painless", "params" : {"param1" : 1}}, "upsert" : {"counter" : 1}}
{ "update" : {"_id" : "2", "_index" : "index1", "retry_on_conflict" : 3} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"}, "doc_as_upsert" : true }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "3", "_index" : "index1", "_source" : true} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"} }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "4", "_index" : "index1"} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"}, "_source": true}
Example with failed actions
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The following bulk API request includes operations that update non-existent documents.

POST /_bulk
{ "update": {"_id": "5", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "foo"} }
{ "update": {"_id": "6", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "foo"} }
{ "create": {"_id": "7", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "my_field": "foo" }

Because these operations cannot complete successfully, the API returns a response with an errors flag of true.

The response also includes an error object for any failed operations. The error object contains additional information about the failure, such as the error type and reason.

{
  "took": 486,
  "errors": true,
  "items": [
    {
      "update": {
        "_index": "index1",
        "_type" : "_doc",
        "_id": "5",
        "status": 404,
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[_doc][5]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "update": {
        "_index": "index1",
        "_type" : "_doc",
        "_id": "6",
        "status": 404,
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[_doc][6]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "create": {
        "_index": "index1",
        "_type" : "_doc",
        "_id": "7",
        "_version": 1,
        "result": "created",
        "_shards": {
          "total": 2,
          "successful": 1,
          "failed": 0
        },
        "_seq_no": 0,
        "_primary_term": 1,
        "status": 201
      }
    }
  ]
}

To return only information about failed operations, use the filter_path query parameter with an argument of items.*.error.

POST /_bulk?filter_path=items.*.error
{ "update": {"_id": "5", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "baz"} }
{ "update": {"_id": "6", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "baz"} }
{ "update": {"_id": "7", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "baz"} }

The API returns the following result.

{
  "items": [
    {
      "update": {
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[_doc][5]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "update": {
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[_doc][6]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}