The split index API operation splits an existing read-only index into a new index, cutting each primary shard into some amount of primary shards in the new index.
## Example
```json
PUT /sample-index1/_split/split-index1
{
"settings": {
"index": {
"number_of_shards": 4,
"number_of_replicas": 2
}
},
"aliases": {
"sample-alias1": {}
}
}
```
## Path and HTTP methods
```
POST /<source-index>/_split/<target-index>
PUT /<source-index>/_split/<target-index>
```
## Index naming restrictions
OpenSearch indexes have the following naming restrictions:
- All letters must be lowercase.
- Index names can't begin with underscores (`_`) or hyphens (`-`).
- Index names can't contain spaces, commas, or the following characters:
Your request must include the source and target indexes. All split index parameters are optional.
Parameter | Type | Description
:--- | :--- | :---
<source-index> | String | The source index to split.
<target-index> | String | The index to create.
wait_for_active_shards | String | The number of active shards that must be available before OpenSearch processes the request. Default is 1 (only the primary shard). Set to all or a positive integer. Values greater than 1 require replicas. For example, if you specify a value of 3, the index must have two replicas distributed across two additional nodes for the operation to succeed.
master_timeout | Time | How long to wait for a connection to the master node. Default is `30s`.
timeout | Time | How long to wait for the request to return. Default is `30s`.
The split index API operation creates a new target index, so you can specify any [index settings]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/api-reference/index-apis/create-index/#index-settings) and [aliases]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/index-alias) to apply to the target index.