This tutorial outlines how to quickly install OpenSearch Benchmark and run your first OpenSearch Benchmark workload.
## Prerequisites
To perform the Quickstart steps, you'll need to fulfill the following prerequisites:
- A currently active OpenSearch cluster. For instructions on how to create an OpenSearch cluster, see [Creating a cluster]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}//tuning-your-cluster/index/).
- Using **Docker Compose**. For instructions on how to use Docker Compose, see [OpenSearch Quickstart]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/quickstart/).
- Using **Tar**. For instructions on how to install OpenSearch with Tar, see [Installing OpenSearch > Tarball]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/install-and-configure/install-opensearch/tar#step-1-download-and-unpack-opensearch).
OpenSearch Benchmark has not been tested with the Window's distribution of OpenSearch.
{: .note}
After installation, you can verify OpenSearch is running by going to `localhost:9200`. If you're running your cluster with the Security plugin enabled, OpenSearch will expect SSL connections with the username "admin" and password "admin". However, since the localhost address is not a unique public address, no certificate authority will issue an SSL certificate for it, so certificate checking will need to be disabled using the `-k` option.
With your cluster running, you can now install OpenSearch Benchmark.
## Installing OpenSearch Benchmark
To install OpenSearch Benchmark with Docker, see [Installing OpenSearch Benchmark > Installing with Docker]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/benchmark/user-guide/installing-benchmark/#installing-with-docker).
You can now run your first benchmark. The following benchmark uses the [percolator](https://github.com/opensearch-project/opensearch-benchmark-workloads/tree/main/percolator) workload.
Benchmarks are run using the [`execute-test`]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/benchmark/commands/execute-test/) command with the following command flags:
For additional `execute_test` command flags, see the [execute-test]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/benchmark/commands/execute-test/) reference. Some commonly used options are `--workload-params`, `--exclude-tasks`, and `--include-tasks`.
{: .tip}
*`--pipeline=benchmark-only` : Informs OSB that users wants to provide their own OpenSearch cluster.
*`--target-host="<OpenSearch Cluster Endpoint>"`: Indicates the target cluster or host that will be benchmarked. Enter the endpoint of your OpenSearch cluster here.
*`--client-options="basic_auth_user:'<Basic Auth Username>',basic_auth_password:'<Basic Auth Password>'"`: The username and password for your OpenSearch cluster.
*`--test-mode`: Allows a user to run the workload without running it for the entire duration. When this flag is present, Benchmark runs the first thousand operations of each task in the workload. This is only meant for sanity checks---the metrics produced are meaningless.
The `--distribution-version`, which indicates which OpenSearch version Benchmark will use when provisioning. When run, the `execute-test` command will parse the correct distribution version when it connects to the OpenSearch cluster.
To run the [percolator](https://github.com/opensearch-project/opensearch-benchmark-workloads/tree/main/percolator) workload with OpenSearch Benchmark, use the following `execute-test` command:
Each task run by the `percolator` workload represents a specific OpenSearch API operation---such as Bulk or Search---that was performed when the test was run. Each task in the output summary contains the following information:
## Running OpenSearch Benchmark on your own cluster
Now that you're familiar with running OpenSearch Benchmark on a cluster, you can run OpenSearch Benchmark on your own cluster, using the same `execute-test` command, replacing the following settings.
* Replace `https://localhost:9200` with your target cluster endpoint. This could be a URI like `https://search.mydomain.com` or a `HOST:PORT` specification.
* If the cluster is configured with basic authentication, replace the username and password in the command line with the appropriate credentials.
* Remove the `verify_certs:false` directive if you are not specifying `localhost` as your target cluster. This directive is needed only for clusters where SSL certificates are not set up.
* If you are using a `HOST:PORT`specification and plan to use SSL/TLS, either specify `https://`, or add the `use_ssl:true` directive to the `--client-options` string option.
* Remove the `--test-mode` flag to run the full workload, rather than an abbreviated test.
You can copy the following command template to use in your own terminal:
See the following resources to learn more about OpenSearch Benchmark:
- [User guide]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/benchmark/user-guide/index/): Dive deep into how OpenSearch Benchmark can you help you track the performance of your cluster.
- [Tutorials]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/benchmark/tutorials/index/): Use step-by-step guides for more advanced Benchmarking configurations and functionality.
