Large index design question

Hi all,

We've been testing elasticsearch with our application and are really
enjoying impressive performance and rock-solid stability. I have a design
question about what would be the most efficient way to index (1) large set
of highly active date and (2) an even larger set of archived
data. Basically we have tens of millions of documents but about 80% of them
are in archive state and 10-20% are read/updated 95% of the time.

My question is this: would it be more efficient to store the archived
documents into a separate type like "/index/mydata_arch" or to just use a
filtered query to cache the results and flag the archived documents as we
index them?

We are working on setting up benchmarks to test this ourselves in a
real-word environment but I wanted to ask the experts here too and see if
you had any input.

Thanks so much for your help!

Sky

I'd consider using separate indices and aliases. Keeping the active index
smaller would help with the performance. Will you know before you index
which docs are archived data and which are active?

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

Hi all,

We've been testing elasticsearch with our application and are really
enjoying impressive performance and rock-solid stability. I have a design
question about what would be the most efficient way to index (1) large set
of highly active date and (2) an even larger set of archived
data. Basically we have tens of millions of documents but about 80% of them
are in archive state and 10-20% are read/updated 95% of the time.

My question is this: would it be more efficient to store the archived
documents into a separate type like "/index/mydata_arch" or to just use a
filtered query to cache the results and flag the archived documents as we
index them?

We are working on setting up benchmarks to test this ourselves in a
real-word environment but I wanted to ask the experts here too and see if
you had any input.

Thanks so much for your help!

Sky

Sorry for my late reply, for some reason I was not notified when you
posted. Documents can move from active to archived at any time so we will
know as the document is indexed or updated where it belongs. In our
database we split the records into two separate tables for performance
reasons.

So your suggestion is to create a completely separate index or type? Sorry,
I'm fairly new to the Elasticsearch terminology...

Thanks,

Sky

On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:40:37 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu wrote:

I'd consider using separate indices and aliases. Keeping the active index
smaller would help with the performance. Will you know before you index
which docs are archived data and which are active?

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

Hi all,

We've been testing elasticsearch with our application and are really
enjoying impressive performance and rock-solid stability. I have a design
question about what would be the most efficient way to index (1) large set
of highly active date and (2) an even larger set of archived
data. Basically we have tens of millions of documents but about 80% of them
are in archive state and 10-20% are read/updated 95% of the time.

My question is this: would it be more efficient to store the archived
documents into a separate type like "/index/mydata_arch" or to just use a
filtered query to cache the results and flag the archived documents as we
index them?

We are working on setting up benchmarks to test this ourselves in a
real-word environment but I wanted to ask the experts here too and see if
you had any input.

Thanks so much for your help!

Sky

No worries. Yes I'd recommend 2 separate indices not types. This would
allow you to optimize them differently. There are number of params that you
can only set in index level.

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

Sorry for my late reply, for some reason I was not notified when you
posted. Documents can move from active to archived at any time so we will
know as the document is indexed or updated where it belongs. In our
database we split the records into two separate tables for performance
reasons.

So your suggestion is to create a completely separate index or type?
Sorry, I'm fairly new to the Elasticsearch terminology...

Thanks,

Sky

On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:40:37 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu wrote:

I'd consider using separate indices and aliases. Keeping the active index
smaller would help with the performance. Will you know before you index
which docs are archived data and which are active?

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

Hi all,

We've been testing elasticsearch with our application and are really
enjoying impressive performance and rock-solid stability. I have a design
question about what would be the most efficient way to index (1) large set
of highly active date and (2) an even larger set of archived
data. Basically we have tens of millions of documents but about 80% of them
are in archive state and 10-20% are read/updated 95% of the time.

My question is this: would it be more efficient to store the archived
documents into a separate type like "/index/mydata_arch" or to just use a
filtered query to cache the results and flag the archived documents as we
index them?

We are working on setting up benchmarks to test this ourselves in a
real-word environment but I wanted to ask the experts here too and see if
you had any input.

Thanks so much for your help!

Sky

What did you mean by "aliases"? If we use two separate indexes would I have
to merge/union the results at the application level if we needed to search
over both active and archived data?

On Thursday, April 26, 2012 10:57:50 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
wrote:

No worries. Yes I'd recommend 2 separate indices not types. This would
allow you to optimize them differently. There are number of params that you
can only set in index level.

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

Sorry for my late reply, for some reason I was not notified when you
posted. Documents can move from active to archived at any time so we will
know as the document is indexed or updated where it belongs. In our
database we split the records into two separate tables for performance
reasons.

So your suggestion is to create a completely separate index or type?
Sorry, I'm fairly new to the Elasticsearch terminology...

Thanks,

Sky

On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:40:37 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
wrote:

I'd consider using separate indices and aliases. Keeping the active
index smaller would help with the performance. Will you know before you
index which docs are archived data and which are active?

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Sky Stebnicki <sky.stebnicki@gmail.com

wrote:

Hi all,

We've been testing elasticsearch with our application and are really
enjoying impressive performance and rock-solid stability. I have a design
question about what would be the most efficient way to index (1) large set
of highly active date and (2) an even larger set of archived
data. Basically we have tens of millions of documents but about 80% of them
are in archive state and 10-20% are read/updated 95% of the time.

My question is this: would it be more efficient to store the archived
documents into a separate type like "/index/mydata_arch" or to just use a
filtered query to cache the results and flag the archived documents as we
index them?

We are working on setting up benchmarks to test this ourselves in a
real-word environment but I wanted to ask the experts here too and see if
you had any input.

Thanks so much for your help!

Sky

You don't have to merge the results yourself. ES allows you create an alias
that references to multiple indices and then query the alias like a normal
index. It'll do the work for you. They are quite powerful and useful.
Details here:

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 7:46 PM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

What did you mean by "aliases"? If we use two separate indexes would I
have to merge/union the results at the application level if we needed to
search over both active and archived data?

On Thursday, April 26, 2012 10:57:50 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
wrote:

No worries. Yes I'd recommend 2 separate indices not types. This would
allow you to optimize them differently. There are number of params that you
can only set in index level.

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

Sorry for my late reply, for some reason I was not notified when you
posted. Documents can move from active to archived at any time so we will
know as the document is indexed or updated where it belongs. In our
database we split the records into two separate tables for performance
reasons.

So your suggestion is to create a completely separate index or type?
Sorry, I'm fairly new to the Elasticsearch terminology...

Thanks,

Sky

On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:40:37 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
wrote:

I'd consider using separate indices and aliases. Keeping the active
index smaller would help with the performance. Will you know before you
index which docs are archived data and which are active?

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Sky Stebnicki <
sky.stebnicki@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

We've been testing elasticsearch with our application and are really
enjoying impressive performance and rock-solid stability. I have a design
question about what would be the most efficient way to index (1) large set
of highly active date and (2) an even larger set of archived
data. Basically we have tens of millions of documents but about 80% of them
are in archive state and 10-20% are read/updated 95% of the time.

My question is this: would it be more efficient to store the archived
documents into a separate type like "/index/mydata_arch" or to just use a
filtered query to cache the results and flag the archived documents as we
index them?

We are working on setting up benchmarks to test this ourselves in a
real-word environment but I wanted to ask the experts here too and see if
you had any input.

Thanks so much for your help!

Sky

That is really awesome! Thanks so much for your help.

On Thursday, April 26, 2012 7:28:46 PM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu wrote:

You don't have to merge the results yourself. ES allows you create an
alias that references to multiple indices and then query the alias like a
normal index. It'll do the work for you. They are quite powerful and
useful. Details here:
Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 7:46 PM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

What did you mean by "aliases"? If we use two separate indexes would I
have to merge/union the results at the application level if we needed to
search over both active and archived data?

On Thursday, April 26, 2012 10:57:50 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
wrote:

No worries. Yes I'd recommend 2 separate indices not types. This would
allow you to optimize them differently. There are number of params that you
can only set in index level.

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Sky Stebnicki sky.stebnicki@gmail.comwrote:

Sorry for my late reply, for some reason I was not notified when you
posted. Documents can move from active to archived at any time so we will
know as the document is indexed or updated where it belongs. In our
database we split the records into two separate tables for performance
reasons.

So your suggestion is to create a completely separate index or type?
Sorry, I'm fairly new to the Elasticsearch terminology...

Thanks,

Sky

On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:40:37 AM UTC-7, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
wrote:

I'd consider using separate indices and aliases. Keeping the active
index smaller would help with the performance. Will you know before you
index which docs are archived data and which are active?

Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Sky Stebnicki <
sky.stebnicki@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

We've been testing elasticsearch with our application and are really
enjoying impressive performance and rock-solid stability. I have a design
question about what would be the most efficient way to index (1) large set
of highly active date and (2) an even larger set of archived
data. Basically we have tens of millions of documents but about 80% of them
are in archive state and 10-20% are read/updated 95% of the time.

My question is this: would it be more efficient to store the archived
documents into a separate type like "/index/mydata_arch" or to just use a
filtered query to cache the results and flag the archived documents as we
index them?

We are working on setting up benchmarks to test this ourselves in a
real-word environment but I wanted to ask the experts here too and see if
you had any input.

Thanks so much for your help!

Sky