- Elasticsearch Guide: other versions:
- What is Elasticsearch?
- What’s new in 7.10
- Getting started with Elasticsearch
- Set up Elasticsearch
- Installing Elasticsearch
- Configuring Elasticsearch
- Setting JVM options
- Secure settings
- Auditing settings
- Circuit breaker settings
- Cluster-level shard allocation and routing settings
- Cross-cluster replication settings
- Discovery and cluster formation settings
- Field data cache settings
- HTTP
- Index lifecycle management settings
- Index management settings
- Index recovery settings
- Indexing buffer settings
- License settings
- Local gateway settings
- Logging
- Machine learning settings
- Monitoring settings
- Node
- Network settings
- Node query cache settings
- Search settings
- Security settings
- Shard request cache settings
- Snapshot lifecycle management settings
- Transforms settings
- Transport
- Thread pools
- Watcher settings
- Important Elasticsearch configuration
- Important System Configuration
- Bootstrap Checks
- Heap size check
- File descriptor check
- Memory lock check
- Maximum number of threads check
- Max file size check
- Maximum size virtual memory check
- Maximum map count check
- Client JVM check
- Use serial collector check
- System call filter check
- OnError and OnOutOfMemoryError checks
- Early-access check
- G1GC check
- All permission check
- Discovery configuration check
- Bootstrap Checks for X-Pack
- Starting Elasticsearch
- Stopping Elasticsearch
- Discovery and cluster formation
- Add and remove nodes in your cluster
- Full-cluster restart and rolling restart
- Remote clusters
- Set up X-Pack
- Configuring X-Pack Java Clients
- Plugins
- Upgrade Elasticsearch
- Index modules
- Mapping
- Text analysis
- Overview
- Concepts
- Configure text analysis
- Built-in analyzer reference
- Tokenizer reference
- Token filter reference
- Apostrophe
- ASCII folding
- CJK bigram
- CJK width
- Classic
- Common grams
- Conditional
- Decimal digit
- Delimited payload
- Dictionary decompounder
- Edge n-gram
- Elision
- Fingerprint
- Flatten graph
- Hunspell
- Hyphenation decompounder
- Keep types
- Keep words
- Keyword marker
- Keyword repeat
- KStem
- Length
- Limit token count
- Lowercase
- MinHash
- Multiplexer
- N-gram
- Normalization
- Pattern capture
- Pattern replace
- Phonetic
- Porter stem
- Predicate script
- Remove duplicates
- Reverse
- Shingle
- Snowball
- Stemmer
- Stemmer override
- Stop
- Synonym
- Synonym graph
- Trim
- Truncate
- Unique
- Uppercase
- Word delimiter
- Word delimiter graph
- Character filters reference
- Normalizers
- Index templates
- Data streams
- Ingest node
- Search your data
- Query DSL
- Aggregations
- Bucket aggregations
- Adjacency matrix
- Auto-interval date histogram
- Children
- Composite
- Date histogram
- Date range
- Diversified sampler
- Filter
- Filters
- Geo-distance
- Geohash grid
- Geotile grid
- Global
- Histogram
- IP range
- Missing
- Nested
- Parent
- Range
- Rare terms
- Reverse nested
- Sampler
- Significant terms
- Significant text
- Terms
- Variable width histogram
- Subtleties of bucketing range fields
- Metrics aggregations
- Pipeline aggregations
- Bucket aggregations
- EQL
- SQL access
- Overview
- Getting Started with SQL
- Conventions and Terminology
- Security
- SQL REST API
- SQL Translate API
- SQL CLI
- SQL JDBC
- SQL ODBC
- SQL Client Applications
- SQL Language
- Functions and Operators
- Comparison Operators
- Logical Operators
- Math Operators
- Cast Operators
- LIKE and RLIKE Operators
- Aggregate Functions
- Grouping Functions
- Date/Time and Interval Functions and Operators
- Full-Text Search Functions
- Mathematical Functions
- String Functions
- Type Conversion Functions
- Geo Functions
- Conditional Functions And Expressions
- System Functions
- Reserved keywords
- SQL Limitations
- Scripting
- Data management
- ILM: Manage the index lifecycle
- Overview
- Concepts
- Automate rollover
- Manage Filebeat time-based indices
- Index lifecycle actions
- Configure a lifecycle policy
- Migrate index allocation filters to node roles
- Resolve lifecycle policy execution errors
- Start and stop index lifecycle management
- Manage existing indices
- Skip rollover
- Restore a managed data stream or index
- Monitor a cluster
- Frozen indices
- Roll up or transform your data
- Set up a cluster for high availability
- Snapshot and restore
- Secure a cluster
- Overview
- Configuring security
- User authentication
- Built-in users
- Internal users
- Token-based authentication services
- Realms
- Realm chains
- Active Directory user authentication
- File-based user authentication
- LDAP user authentication
- Native user authentication
- OpenID Connect authentication
- PKI user authentication
- SAML authentication
- Kerberos authentication
- Integrating with other authentication systems
- Enabling anonymous access
- Controlling the user cache
- Configuring SAML single-sign-on on the Elastic Stack
- Configuring single sign-on to the Elastic Stack using OpenID Connect
- User authorization
- Built-in roles
- Defining roles
- Granting access to Stack Management features
- Security privileges
- Document level security
- Field level security
- Granting privileges for data streams and index aliases
- Mapping users and groups to roles
- Setting up field and document level security
- Submitting requests on behalf of other users
- Configuring authorization delegation
- Customizing roles and authorization
- Enabling audit logging
- Encrypting communications
- Restricting connections with IP filtering
- Cross cluster search, clients, and integrations
- Tutorial: Getting started with security
- Tutorial: Encrypting communications
- Troubleshooting
- Some settings are not returned via the nodes settings API
- Authorization exceptions
- Users command fails due to extra arguments
- Users are frequently locked out of Active Directory
- Certificate verification fails for curl on Mac
- SSLHandshakeException causes connections to fail
- Common SSL/TLS exceptions
- Common Kerberos exceptions
- Common SAML issues
- Internal Server Error in Kibana
- Setup-passwords command fails due to connection failure
- Failures due to relocation of the configuration files
- Limitations
- Watch for cluster and index events
- Command line tools
- How To
- Glossary of terms
- REST APIs
- API conventions
- Compact and aligned text (CAT) APIs
- cat aliases
- cat allocation
- cat anomaly detectors
- cat count
- cat data frame analytics
- cat datafeeds
- cat fielddata
- cat health
- cat indices
- cat master
- cat nodeattrs
- cat nodes
- cat pending tasks
- cat plugins
- cat recovery
- cat repositories
- cat segments
- cat shards
- cat snapshots
- cat task management
- cat templates
- cat thread pool
- cat trained model
- cat transforms
- Cluster APIs
- Cluster allocation explain
- Cluster get settings
- Cluster health
- Cluster reroute
- Cluster state
- Cluster stats
- Cluster update settings
- Nodes feature usage
- Nodes hot threads
- Nodes info
- Nodes reload secure settings
- Nodes stats
- Pending cluster tasks
- Remote cluster info
- Task management
- Voting configuration exclusions
- Cross-cluster replication APIs
- Data stream APIs
- Document APIs
- Enrich APIs
- Graph explore API
- Index APIs
- Add index alias
- Analyze
- Clear cache
- Clone index
- Close index
- Create index
- Delete index
- Delete index alias
- Delete component template
- Delete index template
- Delete index template (legacy)
- Flush
- Force merge
- Freeze index
- Get component template
- Get field mapping
- Get index
- Get index alias
- Get index settings
- Get index template
- Get index template (legacy)
- Get mapping
- Index alias exists
- Index exists
- Index recovery
- Index segments
- Index shard stores
- Index stats
- Index template exists (legacy)
- Open index
- Put index template
- Put index template (legacy)
- Put component template
- Put mapping
- Refresh
- Rollover index
- Shrink index
- Simulate index
- Simulate template
- Split index
- Synced flush
- Type exists
- Unfreeze index
- Update index alias
- Update index settings
- Resolve index
- List dangling indices
- Import dangling index
- Delete dangling index
- Index lifecycle management APIs
- Ingest APIs
- Info API
- Licensing APIs
- Machine learning anomaly detection APIs
- Add events to calendar
- Add jobs to calendar
- Close jobs
- Create jobs
- Create calendars
- Create datafeeds
- Create filters
- Delete calendars
- Delete datafeeds
- Delete events from calendar
- Delete filters
- Delete forecasts
- Delete jobs
- Delete jobs from calendar
- Delete model snapshots
- Delete expired data
- Estimate model memory
- Find file structure
- Flush jobs
- Forecast jobs
- Get buckets
- Get calendars
- Get categories
- Get datafeeds
- Get datafeed statistics
- Get influencers
- Get jobs
- Get job statistics
- Get machine learning info
- Get model snapshots
- Get overall buckets
- Get scheduled events
- Get filters
- Get records
- Open jobs
- Post data to jobs
- Preview datafeeds
- Revert model snapshots
- Set upgrade mode
- Start datafeeds
- Stop datafeeds
- Update datafeeds
- Update filters
- Update jobs
- Update model snapshots
- Machine learning data frame analytics APIs
- Create data frame analytics jobs
- Create trained models
- Update data frame analytics jobs
- Delete data frame analytics jobs
- Delete trained models
- Evaluate data frame analytics
- Explain data frame analytics
- Get data frame analytics jobs
- Get data frame analytics jobs stats
- Get trained models
- Get trained models stats
- Start data frame analytics jobs
- Stop data frame analytics jobs
- Migration APIs
- Reload search analyzers API
- Repositories metering APIs
- Rollup APIs
- Search APIs
- Searchable snapshots APIs
- Security APIs
- Authenticate
- Change passwords
- Clear cache
- Clear roles cache
- Clear privileges cache
- Clear API key cache
- Create API keys
- Create or update application privileges
- Create or update role mappings
- Create or update roles
- Create or update users
- Delegate PKI authentication
- Delete application privileges
- Delete role mappings
- Delete roles
- Delete users
- Disable users
- Enable users
- Get API key information
- Get application privileges
- Get builtin privileges
- Get role mappings
- Get roles
- Get token
- Get users
- Grant API keys
- Has privileges
- Invalidate API key
- Invalidate token
- OpenID Connect prepare authentication
- OpenID Connect authenticate
- OpenID Connect logout
- SAML prepare authentication
- SAML authenticate
- SAML logout
- SAML invalidate
- SSL certificate
- Snapshot and restore APIs
- Snapshot lifecycle management APIs
- Transform APIs
- Usage API
- Watcher APIs
- Definitions
- Migration guide
- Release notes
- Elasticsearch version 7.10.2
- Elasticsearch version 7.10.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.10.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.9.3
- Elasticsearch version 7.9.2
- Elasticsearch version 7.9.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.9.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.8.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.8.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.7.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.7.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.6.2
- Elasticsearch version 7.6.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.6.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.5.2
- Elasticsearch version 7.5.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.5.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.4.2
- Elasticsearch version 7.4.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.4.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.3.2
- Elasticsearch version 7.3.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.3.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.2.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.2.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.1.1
- Elasticsearch version 7.1.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.0.0
- Elasticsearch version 7.0.0-rc2
- Elasticsearch version 7.0.0-rc1
- Elasticsearch version 7.0.0-beta1
- Elasticsearch version 7.0.0-alpha2
- Elasticsearch version 7.0.0-alpha1
- Dependencies and versions
Getting consistent scoring
editGetting consistent scoring
editThe fact that Elasticsearch operates with shards and replicas adds challenges when it comes to having good scoring.
Scores are not reproducible
editSay the same user runs the same request twice in a row and documents do not come
back in the same order both times, this is a pretty bad experience isn’t it?
Unfortunately this is something that can happen if you have replicas
(index.number_of_replicas
is greater than 0). The reason is that Elasticsearch
selects the shards that the query should go to in a round-robin fashion, so it
is quite likely if you run the same query twice in a row that it will go to
different copies of the same shard.
Now why is it a problem? Index statistics are an important part of the score. And these index statistics may be different across copies of the same shard due to deleted documents. As you may know when documents are deleted or updated, the old document is not immediately removed from the index, it is just marked as deleted and it will only be removed from disk on the next time that the segment this old document belongs to is merged. However for practical reasons, those deleted documents are taken into account for index statistics. So imagine that the primary shard just finished a large merge that removed lots of deleted documents, then it might have index statistics that are sufficiently different from the replica (which still have plenty of deleted documents) so that scores are different too.
The recommended way to work around this issue is to use a string that identifies the user that is logged in (a user id or session id for instance) as a preference. This ensures that all queries of a given user are always going to hit the same shards, so scores remain more consistent across queries.
This work around has another benefit: when two documents have the same score,
they will be sorted by their internal Lucene doc id (which is unrelated to the
_id
) by default. However these doc ids could be different across copies of
the same shard. So by always hitting the same shard, we would get more
consistent ordering of documents that have the same scores.
Relevancy looks wrong
editIf you notice that two documents with the same content get different scores or that an exact match is not ranked first, then the issue might be related to sharding. By default, Elasticsearch makes each shard responsible for producing its own scores. However since index statistics are an important contributor to the scores, this only works well if shards have similar index statistics. The assumption is that since documents are routed evenly to shards by default, then index statistics should be very similar and scoring would work as expected. However in the event that you either:
- use routing at index time,
- query multiple indices,
- or have too little data in your index
then there are good chances that all shards that are involved in the search request do not have similar index statistics and relevancy could be bad.
If you have a small dataset, the easiest way to work around this issue is to
index everything into an index that has a single shard
(index.number_of_shards: 1
), which is the default. Then index statistics
will be the same for all documents and scores will be consistent.
Otherwise the recommended way to work around this issue is to use the
dfs_query_then_fetch
search type. This will make
Elasticsearch perform an initial round trip to all involved shards, asking
them for their index statistics relatively to the query, then the coordinating
node will merge those statistics and send the merged statistics alongside the
request when asking shards to perform the query
phase, so that shards can
use these global statistics rather than their own statistics in order to do the
scoring.
In most cases, this additional round trip should be very cheap. However in the event that your query contains a very large number of fields/terms or fuzzy queries, beware that gathering statistics alone might not be cheap since all terms have to be looked up in the terms dictionaries in order to look up statistics.
On this page