# ES as a database? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 9, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-as-a-database/4827 "2011-07-09T18:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ajsie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@ajsie](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ajsie)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-as-a-database/4827/1 "2011-07-09T18:12:59Z")
I have stumbled upon Elastic search which seems to be a very nice full text search engine. It is schema less, distributed, using JSON and RESTful API just like CouchDB. You can add records and retrieve them, also do powerful search in the texts. Here are my questions: Could Elastic search be used as a database? Why would I want to put documents in CouchDB then put the same documents in Elastic search then only query from Elastic search? ---
**Author:** ![Karussell1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/50afbb/32.png) [@Karussell1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Karussell1)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-as-a-database/4827/2 "2011-07-09T19:16:18Z")
On 9 Jul., 20:12, ajsie [johnny.weng....@gmail.com](mailto:johnny.weng....@gmail.com) wrote: > I have stumbled upon Elastic search which seems to be a very nice full > text search engine. It is schema less, distributed, using JSON and > RESTful API just like CouchDB. > > You can add records and retrieve them, also do powerful search in the > texts. > > Here are my questions: > > Could Elastic search be used as a database? yes > Why would I want to put documents in CouchDB then put the same > documents in Elastic search then only query from Elastic search? There are normally limitations with search servers like e.g. Solr but many of them are avoided or can be neglected for Elasticsearch. Examples: 1. indexing requires time and the document are searchable only after a 'commit' in Solr =\> Elasticsearch supports near real time but still the document is searchable only after some latency time! BUT Elasticsearch now (0.17) supports real time get requests which means you can put the doc into ES and check immediately if it is there or get the associated raw data. This is a big nice and cool feature 😉 1. normally setting up a replica or a shard requires a lot of planning and thinking (e.g. with Solr although ... it is ok to other commercial solutions :)) BUT with Elasticsearch this is really easy (especially to set up replicas) 2. ES has versioning support which makes it possible to avoid a refresh which reduces a lot load and e.g. Solr has no such versioning feature... 3. mutli tenancy is very very easy with ES (not so with Solr) ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_Berkhout](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chris_berkhout/32/3058_2.png) [@Chris\_Berkhout](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Chris_Berkhout)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-as-a-database/4827/3 "2011-07-10T04:11:12Z")
If you're using Ruby take a look at Karel Minarik's "tire" gem. For info on using ES as your DB, look for "Tire implements not only searchable features, but also persistence features." near the end of the README at: > **[GitHub - karmi/retire: A rich Ruby API and DSL for the Elasticsearch search...](https://github.com/karmi/retire)** > > A rich Ruby API and DSL for the Elasticsearch search engine - GitHub - karmi/retire: A rich Ruby API and DSL for the Elasticsearch search engine If you are _only_ going to lookup your data from ES, that is a sign that you should seriously consider getting rid of CouchDB. In my case, I'm using MongoDB via Mongoid as well, because Mongoid has more robust persistance for Rails than Tire currently does, and because MongoDB offers us ways to work with the data beyond store, search and retrieve (e.g. updating individual fields rather than the whole document, doing map-reduce, etc.) Cheers, Chris On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 3:16 AM, Karussell [tableyourtime@googlemail.com](mailto:tableyourtime@googlemail.com) wrote: > On 9 Jul., 20:12, ajsie [johnny.weng....@gmail.com](mailto:johnny.weng....@gmail.com) wrote: > > > I have stumbled upon Elastic search which seems to be a very nice full > > text search engine. It is schema less, distributed, using JSON and > > RESTful API just like CouchDB. > > > > You can add records and retrieve them, also do powerful search in the > > texts. > > > > Here are my questions: > > > > Could Elastic search be used as a database? > > yes > > > Why would I want to put documents in CouchDB then put the same > > documents in Elastic search then only query from Elastic search? > > There are normally limitations with search servers like e.g. Solr but > many of them are avoided or can be neglected for Elasticsearch. > > Examples: > > 1. indexing requires time and the document are searchable only after a > 'commit' in Solr =\> Elasticsearch supports near real time but still > the document is searchable only after some latency time! > > BUT Elasticsearch now (0.17) supports real time get requests which > means you can put the doc into ES and check immediately if it is there > or get the associated raw data. This is a big nice and cool feature 😉 > > 1. normally setting up a replica or a shard requires a lot of planning > and thinking (e.g. with Solr although ... it is ok to other commercial > solutions :)) BUT with Elasticsearch this is really easy (especially > to set up replicas) > > 2. ES has versioning support which makes it possible to avoid a > refresh which reduces a lot load and e.g. Solr has no such versioning > feature... > > 3. mutli tenancy is very very easy with ES (not so with Solr) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-as-a-database/4827/4 "2017-07-06T04:01:06Z")