# How to setup unit testing for elastissearch configuration

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-setup-unit-testing-for-elastissearch-configuration/11016>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 5, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-setup-unit-testing-for-elastissearch-configuration/11016 "2013-03-05T15:27:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sindre\_Svendby](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sindre_svendby/32/2461_2.png) [@Sindre\_Svendby](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sindre_Svendby)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-setup-unit-testing-for-elastissearch-configuration/11016/1 "2013-03-05T15:27:20Z")

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Hi

I'm looking into elasticsearch and do I since I do not understand all the  
aspects of it yet, I want to have as short feedback loops as possible.  
So I want to setup UT where I test my assumptions of ES. This part looks  
ok. But if I use the java api to do this changes, and when I want to have  
this configuration on a test or a production env, where I want ES to be a  
standalone application. How do I do this the best way? I see that on  
[elasticsearch.org](http://elasticsearch.org) the common way suggesting is to have the configuration  
in a elasticsearch.yml file.  
I was thinking that it was better to have all the configuration in the  
"elasticsearch-config" app, and when I run this application it deploys the  
config I have tested to a clean elasticsearch server.  
I tried to google and look in the google groups to see if someone has done  
this before, but I can't see anyone that has thought the same as me.

Do this sound like a bad idea, or do there exist some kind of best  
practice on how to do this? (UT the config code and use the same config in  
a standalone ES instance)

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**Author:** ![Jilles\_van\_Gurp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jilles_van_gurp/32/879_2.png) [@Jilles\_van\_Gurp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jilles_van_Gurp)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-setup-unit-testing-for-elastissearch-configuration/11016/2 "2013-03-05T16:29:27Z")

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I actually start Elasticsearch embedded and configure it using  
System.setProperty. Anything you can define in the yml, you can also  
override with -D or using system properties (you have to prepend "es.:  
though.

This way, you don't need any pre-existing infrastructure/configuration to  
run your tests. Using the system properties, I set it to use in memory  
storage, use a custom node name, and disable clustering, etc.

In my unit tests, I actually make sure that Elasticsearch is started only  
once and my tests use randomized data (ids etc.) so I don't have to wipe  
the index in between tests. I'd recommend anyone to do the same since this  
speeds things up quite a bit.

Here's my launcher class if you are interested.

> **[ESLauncher - Pastebin.com](https://pastebin.com/pX0C397W)**
>
> Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

I actually use this launcher in production as well but with different  
system properties. The nice thing about this is that the jars are already  
there because they are bundled with my application and I don't need a  
separate Elasticsearch package. Also, I can control which version of  
Elasticsearch rolls out using my application pom file.

Jilles

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 4:27:20 PM UTC+1, Sindre Svendby wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I'm looking into elasticsearch and do I since I do not understand all the  
> aspects of it yet, I want to have as short feedback loops as possible.  
> So I want to setup UT where I test my assumptions of ES. This part looks  
> ok. But if I use the java api to do this changes, and when I want to have  
> this configuration on a test or a production env, where I want ES to be a  
> standalone application. How do I do this the best way? I see that on  
> [elasticsearch.org](http://elasticsearch.org) the common way suggesting is to have the configuration  
> in a elasticsearch.yml file.  
> I was thinking that it was better to have all the configuration in the  
> "elasticsearch-config" app, and when I run this application it deploys the  
> config I have tested to a clean elasticsearch server.  
> I tried to google and look in the google groups to see if someone has done  
> this before, but I can't see anyone that has thought the same as me.
> 
> Do this sound like a bad idea, or do there exist some kind of best  
> practice on how to do this? (UT the config code and use the same config in  
> a standalone ES instance)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andrea\_crotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@andrea\_crotti](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrea_crotti)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 11:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-setup-unit-testing-for-elastissearch-configuration/11016/3 "2013-03-06T11:32:48Z")

</div>

I work with Python and pyes and I actually managed to have a quite nice UT  
system to test my assumptions about ES.

I think you almost never need to use elasticsearch.yml, because you can  
still set up everything at run time with newly created indexes.  
This for example

class TempIndex:  
def **init** (self, name=None, settings=None, empty=False):  
self.name = name or "index" + uuid4().hex  
self.settings = settings or {}  
self.empty = empty

```
def __enter__ (self):
    ES_CON.create_index(self.name, settings=self.settings)
    if not self.empty:
        populate(ES_CON, self.name)

    return self.name

def __exit__ (self, type, value, traceback):
    ES_CON.delete_index(self.name)

```

creates a temporary fresh index, to which I can pass some settings and  
mappings and populates it.  
with TempIndex(settings={'analyzer': 'xyz'}) as index:  
es\_con.search(StringQuery(...

and there check all my assumptions.  
Works pretty well and does not depend on any specific machine configuration.

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 3:27:20 PM UTC, Sindre Svendby wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I'm looking into elasticsearch and do I since I do not understand all the  
> aspects of it yet, I want to have as short feedback loops as possible.  
> So I want to setup UT where I test my assumptions of ES. This part looks  
> ok. But if I use the java api to do this changes, and when I want to have  
> this configuration on a test or a production env, where I want ES to be a  
> standalone application. How do I do this the best way? I see that on  
> [elasticsearch.org](http://elasticsearch.org) the common way suggesting is to have the configuration  
> in a elasticsearch.yml file.  
> I was thinking that it was better to have all the configuration in the  
> "elasticsearch-config" app, and when I run this application it deploys the  
> config I have tested to a clean elasticsearch server.  
> I tried to google and look in the google groups to see if someone has done  
> this before, but I can't see anyone that has thought the same as me.
> 
> Do this sound like a bad idea, or do there exist some kind of best  
> practice on how to do this? (UT the config code and use the same config in  
> a standalone ES instance)

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**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, 2:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-setup-unit-testing-for-elastissearch-configuration/11016/4 "2017-07-06T02:48:08Z")

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