# Performance issues in large bool filter query

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-issues-in-large-bool-filter-query/153473>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [October 22, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-issues-in-large-bool-filter-query/153473 "2018-10-22T19:34:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![luise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@luise](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/luise)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-issues-in-large-bool-filter-query/153473/1 "2018-10-22T19:34:54Z")

</div>

I am trying to obtain a list of up to two million results through the following scrolled query, of each hit I only need a couple of fields:

```
GET alerts-*/_search
{
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "filter": [
        {
          "range": {
            "timestamp": {
              "gte": 1539648000,
              "lte": 1539907199,
              "format": "epoch_second"
            }
          }
        },
        {
          "term": {
            "sensor_name.keyword": "enp3s0"
          }
        },
        {
          "term": {
            "source_ip": "192.168.0.1"
          }
        },
        {
          "term": {
            "destination_ip": "192.168.0.2"
          }
        },
        {
          "term": {
            "destination_port": "135"
          }
        },
        {
          "term": {
            "sid": 2102251
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "size": 10000,
  "_source": [
    "source_port",
    "timestamp"
  ]
}

```

Each scroll takes about 2 seconds initially, and takes a little more each time, so by the end of the query each scroll can take up to 7 seconds. Since this query can take some minutes to complete, I would like to know if there is a more efficient way to get this large list of values. I am using ES 6.3 and python to store the returned values. Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mvg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mvg/32/98890_2.png) [@mvg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mvg)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 8:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-issues-in-large-bool-filter-query/153473/2 "2018-10-23T08:29:47Z")

</div>

Normal pagination (`from` parameter) should not be used when fetching many documents. Instead search after should be used. This works differently. Instead of specifying an offset in subsequent search requests; the last sort value should be specified in subsequent requests.

Search after: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.4/search-request-search-after.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.4/search-request-search-after.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 8:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-issues-in-large-bool-filter-query/153473/3 "2018-11-20T08:29:48Z")

</div>

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