# Existing multi-index cluster; now I need to search across it **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [April 14, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-multi-index-cluster-now-i-need-to-search-across-it/17005 "2014-04-14T15:14:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrew\_O\_Brien](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andrew_o_brien/32/1642_2.png) [@Andrew\_O\_Brien](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Andrew_O_Brien)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-multi-index-cluster-now-i-need-to-search-across-it/17005/1 "2014-04-14T15:14:13Z")
Hi, I'm working with a cluster that has 20 or so indices whose types are pretty different from each other in the details, but have a couple of commonalities across them. The application has "advanced search" forms that are specific to each index and have a lot of filters on various fields. Now I need to make a "global search" that's a simple text match without changing the way that the advanced forms make their queries, minimizing duplication of data, while getting good relevancy results. At one time, I proposed a single multi-type index, but that's a lot of duplication and adds quite an ETL burden. Right now, I'm considering adding "copy\_to" to the mappings to copy the specialized fields into consistently named ones so that I can do a multi-index search that at least produces similar result objects, but there's still duplication there (if there were an "alias\_to", I might be able to avoid that... but I'm sure that would add complexity somewhere). Another option is to have the application do that alias-mapping/unmapping, but that would make queries enormous, add complexity to result rendering, and perhaps worst: would make it almost impossible to figure out how scoring works (at least, that's what I've argued to anyone who's suggested it). I'd love to hear some more informed opinions though. Thanks. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/55973bfa-59a9-41bd-b24f-a0d69de707ed%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/55973bfa-59a9-41bd-b24f-a0d69de707ed%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Binh\_Ly\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@Binh\_Ly\_2](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Binh_Ly_2)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-multi-index-cluster-now-i-need-to-search-across-it/17005/2 "2014-04-16T13:55:45Z")
Not sure if this would help, but in your mapping, on a field, you can specify "index\_name", in which case you can refer to that name in your queries. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/d6a24abc-4b84-4327-8964-9fe155a7d2f6%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/d6a24abc-4b84-4327-8964-9fe155a7d2f6%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_O\_Brien](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andrew_o_brien/32/1642_2.png) [@Andrew\_O\_Brien](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Andrew_O_Brien)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-multi-index-cluster-now-i-need-to-search-across-it/17005/3 "2014-04-16T20:52:19Z")
Thanks Binh. That looks very promising. I was able to make a multi-index multi\_match querying my index\_named fields. Here's my Sense session: [Multi-index searching with highlighting across heterogenous types. ยท GitHub](https://gist.github.com/AndrewO/10930544) I noticed a slight but consistent increase in size (~200b for 1 document) for an index with an index\_name'd mapping vs. one without. Any idea what could account for that? Or is this just noise? There are two problems that are still open for me with this approach: 1. \_source doesn't seem to respect index\_names, so I can't limit the response fields using my common index\_names. 2. Highlighting doesn't seem to include copy\_to fields. I might be missing a setting here... The gist has some examples demonstrating these. Any pointers would be appreciated. On Wednesday, April 16, 2014 9:55:45 AM UTC-4, Binh Ly wrote: > Not sure if this would help, but in your mapping, on a field, you can > specify "index\_name", in which case you can refer to that name in your > queries. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/16cfded4-eb47-44be-9032-c347d0691dc8%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/16cfded4-eb47-44be-9032-c347d0691dc8%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**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, 1:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/existing-multi-index-cluster-now-i-need-to-search-across-it/17005/4 "2017-07-06T01:35:24Z")
Closed on July 6, 2017, 1:35am UTC