[[indices-create-index]] === Create index API ++++ Create index ++++ Creates a new index. [source,console] -------------------------------------------------- PUT /twitter -------------------------------------------------- [[indices-create-api-request]] ==== {api-request-title} `PUT /` [[indices-create-api-desc]] ==== {api-description-title} You can use the create index API to add a new index to an {es} cluster. When creating an index, you can specify the following: * Settings for the index * Mappings for fields in the index * Index aliases [[indices-create-api-path-params]] ==== {api-path-parms-title} ``:: + -- (Optional, string) Name of the index you wish to create. Index names must meet the following criteria: - Lowercase only - Cannot include `\`, `/`, `*`, `?`, `"`, `<`, `>`, `|`, ` ` (space character), `,`, `#` - Indices prior to 7.0 could contain a colon (`:`), but that's been deprecated and won't be supported in 7.0+ - Cannot start with `-`, `_`, `+` - Cannot be `.` or `..` - Cannot be longer than 255 bytes (note it is bytes, so multi-byte characters will count towards the 255 limit faster) -- [[indices-create-api-query-params]] ==== {api-query-parms-title} include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=include-type-name] include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=wait_for_active_shards] include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=timeoutparms] [[indices-create-api-request-body]] ==== {api-request-body-title} `aliases`:: (Optional, <>) Index aliases which include the index. See <>. include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=mappings] include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=settings] [[indices-create-api-example]] ==== {api-examples-title} [[create-index-settings]] ===== Index settings Each index created can have specific settings associated with it, defined in the body: [source,console] -------------------------------------------------- PUT /twitter { "settings" : { "index" : { "number_of_shards" : 3, <1> "number_of_replicas" : 2 <2> } } } -------------------------------------------------- <1> Default for `number_of_shards` is 1 <2> Default for `number_of_replicas` is 1 (ie one replica for each primary shard) or more simplified [source,console] -------------------------------------------------- PUT /twitter { "settings" : { "number_of_shards" : 3, "number_of_replicas" : 2 } } -------------------------------------------------- [NOTE] 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 <> section. [[mappings]] ===== Mappings The create index API allows for providing a mapping definition: [source,console] -------------------------------------------------- PUT /test { "settings" : { "number_of_shards" : 1 }, "mappings" : { "properties" : { "field1" : { "type" : "text" } } } } -------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Before 7.0.0, the 'mappings' definition used to include a type name. Although specifying types in requests is now deprecated, a type can still be provided if the request parameter include_type_name is set. For more details, please see <>. [[create-index-aliases]] ===== Aliases The create index API allows also to provide a set of <>: [source,console] -------------------------------------------------- PUT /test { "aliases" : { "alias_1" : {}, "alias_2" : { "filter" : { "term" : {"user" : "kimchy" } }, "routing" : "kimchy" } } } -------------------------------------------------- [[create-index-wait-for-active-shards]] ===== Wait For active shards By default, index creation will only return a response to the client when the primary copies of each shard have been started, or the request times out. The index creation response will indicate what happened: [source,console-result] -------------------------------------------------- { "acknowledged": true, "shards_acknowledged": true, "index": "test" } -------------------------------------------------- `acknowledged` indicates whether the index was successfully created in the cluster, while `shards_acknowledged` indicates whether the requisite number of shard copies were started for each shard in the index before timing out. Note that it is still possible for either `acknowledged` or `shards_acknowledged` to be `false`, but the index creation was successful. These values simply indicate whether the operation completed before the timeout. If `acknowledged` is `false`, then we timed out before the cluster state was updated with the newly created index, but it probably will be created sometime soon. If `shards_acknowledged` is `false`, then we timed out before the requisite number of shards were started (by default just the primaries), even if the cluster state was successfully updated to reflect the newly created index (i.e. `acknowledged=true`). We can change the default of only waiting for the primary shards to start through the index setting `index.write.wait_for_active_shards` (note that changing this setting will also affect the `wait_for_active_shards` value on all subsequent write operations): [source,console] -------------------------------------------------- PUT /test { "settings": { "index.write.wait_for_active_shards": "2" } } -------------------------------------------------- // TEST[skip:requires two nodes] or through the request parameter `wait_for_active_shards`: [source,console] -------------------------------------------------- PUT /test?wait_for_active_shards=2 -------------------------------------------------- // TEST[skip:requires two nodes] A detailed explanation of `wait_for_active_shards` and its possible values can be found <>.