# What is \_recovery\_source field?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-recovery-source-field/320108
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** vector-search
**Created:** [November 30, 2022, 5:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-recovery-source-field/320108 "2022-11-30T05:55:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ruslaniv](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ruslaniv)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2022, 5:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-recovery-source-field/320108/1 "2022-11-30T05:55:11Z")
I have initiated indexing operation via python client that was abnormally terminated. When I ran
```auto
curl --location --request POST 'http://127.0.0.1:9200/index_name.vec/_disk_usage?run_expensive_tasks=true
```
to analyze the current index, I noticed that there is a `_recovery_source` field that based on its size contains raw `dense_vector` field data in float representation taking a lot of space.
```auto
"index_vector": {
"store_size": "29.3mb",
"all_fields": {
"total": "29.3mb",
"inverted_index": {
"total": "50.4kb",
},
"stored_fields": "23.2mb",
"doc_values": "286.6kb",
"points": "14.2kb",
"norms": "1.3kb",
"term_vectors": "0b",
"knn_vectors": "5.7mb",
}
"_recovery_source": {
"total": "21.8mb",
"inverted_index": {
"total": "0b",
},
"stored_fields": "21.8mb",
"doc_values": "0b",
"points": "0b",
"norms": "0b",
"term_vectors": "0b",
"knn_vectors": "0b",
"_source": {
"total": "1.3mb",
"inverted_index": {
"total": "0b",
},
"stored_fields": "1.3mb",
"doc_values": "0b",
"points": "0b",
"norms": "0b",
"term_vectors": "0b",
"knn_vectors": "0b",
```
Based on its name I can guess that this field is used for some recovery operations on the index but if it is storing raw dense vectors without any compression, then it's going to take a lot of space.
See:
> [@Dense vector field space requirements](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dense-vector-field-space-requirements/316304):
>
> Hi! We are experimenting with dense vector field type for the purpose of similarity search. So we have a test index with approx 5\_000\_000 documents, each document has about 30 fields and 25 of these fields are mapped to both keyword AND text. So I created a new index, where 24 of these 25 fields were set only to keyword AND index set to False. And only one field mapped to dense\_vector with 768 dimensions and index set to True. After indexing 500\_000 documents we have noticed that the index s…
> [@How to exclude dense\_vector field from being stored](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-dense-vector-field-from-being-stored/320034):
>
> How can I exclude dense\_vector field from being stored in the \_source? I ran an experiment indexing approximately 6\_000\_000 documents and here is what I found out after running curl --location --request POST 'http://127.0.0.1:9200/index\_name.vec/\_disk\_usage?run\_expensive\_tasks=true The dense\_vector field indeed takes approximately 4 Kb in the index: (4 × 1024 + 4) / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 × (5872381 + 777907) = 25,3 Gb which is confirmed by: "knn\_vectors": "26.2gb" But it is also storing dens…
So I was wondering what this field is used for and how can I disable it or at least disable dense vectors from being included in this field?
---
### Author:  [@BenTrent](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BenTrent)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2022, 2:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-recovery-source-field/320108/2 "2022-11-30T14:32:37Z")
Recovery source is SUPPOSED to go away after segments are merged.
See: [Indices with "\_source.enabled: false" same size as indices with "\_source.enabled: true" · Issue #41628 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/41628)
It is effectively use by cross-cluster replication and shard disaster recoveries.
---
### Author:  [@ruslaniv](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ruslaniv)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2022, 9:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-recovery-source-field/320108/3 "2022-12-01T09:54:15Z")
Unfortunately it stays:
> [@How to exclude dense\_vector field from being stored](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-dense-vector-field-from-being-stored/320034/7):
>
> Yes I did run POST no\_vector\_in\_source/\_forcemerge?max\_num\_segments=1 but it did not help
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2022, 9:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-recovery-source-field/320108/4 "2022-12-29T09:54:58Z")
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