Amazon OpenSearch Service rename - Summary of changes

On September 8, 2021, our search and analytics suite was renamed to Amazon OpenSearch Service. OpenSearch Service supports OpenSearch as well as legacy Elasticsearch OSS. The following sections describe the different parts of the service that changed with the rename, and what actions you need to take to ensure that your domains continue to function properly.

Some of these changes only apply when you upgrade your domains from Elasticsearch to OpenSearch. In other cases, such as in the Billing and Cost Management console, the experience changes immediately.

Note that this list is not exhaustive. While other parts of the product also changed, these updates are the most relevant.

New API version

The new version of the OpenSearch Service configuration API (2021-01-01) works with OpenSearch as well as legacy Elasticsearch OSS. 21 API operations were replaced with more concise and engine-agnostic names (for example, CreateElasticsearchDomain changed to CreateDomain), but OpenSearch Service continues to support both API versions.

We recommend that you use the new API operations to create and manage domains going forward. Note that when you use the new API operations to create a domain, you need to specify the EngineVersion parameter in the format Elasticsearch_X.Y or OpenSearch_X.Y, rather than just the version number. If you don't specify a version, it defaults to the latest version of OpenSearch.

Upgrade your AWS CLI to version 1.20.40 or later in order to use aws opensearch ... to create and manage your domains. For the new CLI format, see the OpenSearch CLI reference.

Renamed instance types

Instance types in Amazon OpenSearch Service are now in the format <type>.<size>.search—for example, m6g.large.search rather than m6g.large.elasticsearch. You don't need to take any action. Existing domains will start automatically referring to the new instance types within the API and in the Billing and Cost Management console.

If you have Reserved Instances (RIs), your contract won't be impacted by the change. The old configuration API version is still compatible with the old naming format, but if you want to use the new API version, you need to use the new format.

Access policy changes

The following sections describe what actions you need to take to update your access policies.

IAM policies

We recommend that you update your IAM policies to use the renamed API operations. However, OpenSearch Service will continue to respect existing policies by internally replicating the old API permissions. For example, if you currently have permission to perform the CreateElasticsearchDomain operation, you can now make calls to both CreateElasticsearchDomain (old API operation) and CreateDomain (new API operation). The same applies to explicit denies. For a list of updated API operations, see the policy element reference.

SCP policies

Service control policies (SCPs) introduce an additional layer of complexity compared to standard IAM. To prevent your SCP policies from breaking, you need to add both the old and the new API operations to each of your SCP policies. For example, if a user currently has allow permissions for CreateElasticsearchDomain, you also need to grant them allow permissions for CreateDomain so they can retain the ability to create domains. The same applies to explicit denies.

For example:

"Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "es:CreateElasticsearchDomain",
        "es:CreateDomain"
         ...
      ],
    },
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "Action:" [
        "es:DeleteElasticsearchDomain",
        "es:DeleteDomain"
         ...

New resource types

OpenSearch Service introduces the following new resource types:

Kibana renamed to OpenSearch Dashboards

OpenSearch Dashboards, the AWS alternative to Kibana, is an open-source visualization tool designed to work with OpenSearch. After you upgrade a domain from Elasticsearch to OpenSearch, the /_plugin/kibana endpoint changes to /_dashboards. OpenSearch Service will redirect all requests to the new endpoint, but if you use the Kibana endpoint in any of your IAM policies, update those policies to include the new /_dashboards endpoint as well.

If you're using SAML authentication for OpenSearch Dashboards, before you upgrade your domain to OpenSearch, you need to change all Kibana URLs configured in your identity provider (IdP) from /_plugin/kibana to /_dashboards. The most common URLs are assertion consumer service (ACS) URLs and recipient URLs.

The default kibana_read_only role for OpenSearch Dashboards was renamed to opensearch_dashboards_read_only, and the kibana_user role was renamed to opensearch_dashboards_user. The change applies to all newly-created OpenSearch 1.x domains running service software R20211203 or later. If you upgrade an existing domain to service software R20211203, the role names remain the same.

Renamed CloudWatch metrics

Several CloudWatch metrics change for domains running OpenSearch. When you upgrade a domain to OpenSearch, the metrics change automatically and your current CloudWatch alarms will break. Before upgrading your cluster from an Elasticsearch version to an OpenSearch version, make sure to update your CloudWatch alarms to use the new metrics.

The following metrics changed:

For a full list of metrics that OpenSearch Service sends to Amazon CloudWatch, see Monitoring OpenSearch cluster metrics with Amazon CloudWatch.

Billing and Cost Management console changes

Historic data in the Billing and Cost Management console and in Cost and Usage Reports will continue to use the old service name, so you need to start using filters for both Amazon OpenSearch Service and the legacy Elasticsearch name when searching for data. If you have existing saved reports, update the filters to make sure they also include OpenSearch Service. You might initially receive an alert when your usage decreases for Elasticsearch and increases for OpenSearch, but it disappears within several days.

In addition to the service name, the following fields will change for all reports, bills, and price list API operations:

New event format

The format of events that OpenSearch Service sends to Amazon EventBridge and Amazon CloudWatch has changed, specifically the detail-type field. The source field (aws.es) remains the same. For the complete format for each event type, see Monitoring OpenSearch Service events with Amazon EventBridge. If you have existing event rules that depend on the old format, make sure to update them to conform to the new format.

What's staying the same?

The following features and functionality, among others not listed, will remain the same:

Get started: Upgrade your domains to OpenSearch 1.x

OpenSearch 1.x supports upgrades from Elasticsearch versions 6.8 and 7.x. For instructions to upgrade your domain, see Upgrading a domain (console). If you're using the AWS CLI or configuration API to upgrade your domain, you need to specify the TargetVersion as OpenSearch_1.x.

OpenSearch 1.x introduces an additional domain setting called Enable compatibility mode. Because certain Elasticsearch OSS clients and plugins check the cluster version before connecting, compatibility mode sets OpenSearch to report its version as 7.10 so these clients continue to work.

You can enable compatibility mode when you create OpenSearch domains for the first time, or when you upgrade to OpenSearch from an Elasticsearch version. If it's not set, the parameter defaults to false when you create a domain, and true when you upgrade a domain.

To enable compatibility mode using the configuration API, set override_main_response_version to true:

POST https://es.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/2021-01-01/opensearch/upgradeDomain
{
  "DomainName": "domain-name",
  "TargetVersion": "OpenSearch_1.0",
  "AdvancedOptions": {
    "override_main_response_version": "true"
   }
}

To enable or disable compatibility mode on existing OpenSearch domains, you need to use the OpenSearch _cluster/settings API operation:

PUT /_cluster/settings
{
  "persistent" : {
    "compatibility.override_main_response_version" : true
  }
}