Open a closed index

POST /{index}/_open

For data streams, the API opens any closed backing indices.

A closed index is blocked for read/write operations and does not allow all operations that opened indices allow. It is not possible to index documents or to search for documents in a closed index. This allows closed indices to not have to maintain internal data structures for indexing or searching documents, resulting in a smaller overhead on the cluster.

When opening or closing an index, the master is responsible for restarting the index shards to reflect the new state of the index. The shards will then go through the normal recovery process. The data of opened or closed indices is automatically replicated by the cluster to ensure that enough shard copies are safely kept around at all times.

You can open and close multiple indices. An error is thrown if the request explicitly refers to a missing index. This behavior can be turned off by using the ignore_unavailable=true parameter.

By default, you must explicitly name the indices you are opening or closing. To open or close indices with _all, *, or other wildcard expressions, change the action.destructive_requires_name setting to false. This setting can also be changed with the cluster update settings API.

Closed indices consume a significant amount of disk-space which can cause problems in managed environments. Closing indices can be turned off with the cluster settings API by setting cluster.indices.close.enable to false.

Because opening or closing an index allocates its shards, the wait_for_active_shards setting on index creation applies to the _open and _close index actions as well.

Path parameters

  • index string | array[string] Required

    Comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and aliases used to limit the request. Supports wildcards (*). By default, you must explicitly name the indices you using to limit the request. To limit a request using _all, *, or other wildcard expressions, change the action.destructive_requires_name setting to false. You can update this setting in the elasticsearch.yml file or using the cluster update settings API.

Query parameters

  • If false, the request returns an error if any wildcard expression, index alias, or _all value targets only missing or closed indices. This behavior applies even if the request targets other open indices.

  • expand_wildcards string | array[string]

    Type of index that wildcard patterns can match. If the request can target data streams, this argument determines whether wildcard expressions match hidden data streams. Supports comma-separated values, such as open,hidden. Valid values are: all, open, closed, hidden, none.

  • If false, the request returns an error if it targets a missing or closed index.

  • Period to wait for a connection to the master node. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

  • timeout string

    Period to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

  • wait_for_active_shards number | string

    The number of shard copies that must be active before proceeding with the operation. Set to all or any positive integer up to the total number of shards in the index (number_of_replicas+1).

Responses

POST /{index}/_open
curl \
 -X POST http://api.example.com/{index}/_open
Response examples (200)
A successful response for opening an index.
{
  "acknowledged" : true,
  "shards_acknowledged" : true
}