Elasticsearch to OpenSearch Migration

When it comes to migrating from Elasticsearch to OpenSearch, there is not one single migration path. Since Elasticsearch is so widespread and has many usecases, no two installations are the same. When thinking about migrating from Elasticsearch to OpenSearch, you need to consider the following topics: Data, features, tools and configuration.

Before starting your migration project, you may want to read our articles about prerequisites:

• OpenSearch Migration Prerequisites

Data compatibility

Both OpenSearch and Elasticsearch are based on Lucene, so the data is stored on disk in a similar way. However, the binary compatibility between the two platforms is limited, so in most cases it is not possible to simply copy your data files from one platform to another. Depending on your requirements platform versions, the options are:

• Snapshot/Restore
• Reindex API

Feature compatibility

OpenSearch and Elasticsearch are similar in features, but not identical. Before starting the migration, it is advisable to check if all features you use from the Elastic Stack are also available on OpenSearch. We have compiled a comparison of the (in our experience) most used features of Elasticsearch with OpenSearch:

• OpenSearch Migration Prerequisites

Configuration

The configuration of Elasticsearch and OpenSearch is same-same, but also different. Depending on the Elasticsearch features you use, you will need to manually adapt configuration files like elasticsearch.yml or users and security roles to conform with the OpenSearch format. We have compiled a series of blogposts to help you with migrating the configuration:

• TLS Setup
• Users
• Roles
• Document- and Field-level security
• User impersonation

Tools

Elasticsearch is most likely not the only tool you use from the Elastic Stack. When migrating to OpenSearch, check that these tools are either compatible with OpenSearch, or that there is a alternative available. The easiest part here is Kibana. You can replace it with OpenSearch Dashboards, which provides similar and in many cases more features.

For other tools, the answer might not be so easy. If you use Logstash and/or Beats, take a look at the Data Prepper project from OpenSearch which provides you with similar functionality.

• Data Prepper

If you use Third-Party tools or plugins you probably need to find a replacement on a case-by-case basis. We are happy to assist you with this task.