Amazon Elasticsearch Service (Amazon ES) is a managed service that makes it easy to create a domain and deploy, operate, and scale Elasticsearch clusters in the AWS Cloud. Elasticsearch is a popular open-source search and analytics engine for use cases such as log analytics, real-time application monitoring, and clickstream analytics. With Amazon ES, you get direct access to the Elasticsearch APIs so that existing code and applications work seamlessly with the service.
Additionally, Amazon ES offers the following benefits of a managed service:
You can use the Amazon ES console to set up and configure your domain in minutes. If you prefer programmatic access, you can use the AWS SDKs or the AWS CLI.
There are no upfront costs to set up clusters, and you pay only for the service resources that you use.
Topics
Amazon ES includes the following features:
Scale
Security
Stability
Integration with Popular Services
Amazon ES currently supports the following Elasticsearch versions:
Compared to earlier versions of Elasticsearch, the 5.x and 6.x versions offer powerful features that make them faster, more secure, and easier to use. Here are some highlights:
For more information about the differences between Elasticsearch versions and the APIs that Amazon ES supports, see the Supported Elasticsearch Operations.
If you start a new Elasticsearch project, we strongly recommend that you choose the latest supported Elasticsearch version. If you have an existing domain that uses an older Elasticsearch version, you can choose to keep the domain or migrate your data. For more information, see Migrating to a Different Elasticsearch Version.
To get started, sign up for an AWS account if you don’t already have one. For more information, see Signing Up for AWS.
After you are set up with an account, complete the Getting Started tutorial for Amazon Elasticsearch Service. Consult the following introductory topics if you need more information while learning about the service.
Get Up and Running
Learn the Basics
Choose Instance Types and Storage
Stay Secure
If you’re not already an AWS customer, your first step is to create an AWS account. If you already have an AWS account, you are automatically signed up for Amazon ES. Your AWS account enables you to access Amazon ES and other AWS services such as Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2. There are no sign-up fees, and you don’t incur charges until you create a domain. As with other AWS services, you pay only for the resources that you use.
To create an AWS account
Note
This might be unavailable in your browser if you previously signed into the AWS Management Console. In that case, choose Sign into a different account, and then choose to Create a new AWS account.
You must enter payment information before you can begin using Amazon ES. Note your AWS account number, because you’ll need it later.
You can access Amazon ES through the Amazon ES console, the AWS SDKs, or the AWS CLI.
Amazon ES provides regional endpoints for accessing the configuration API and domain-specific endpoints for accessing the Elasticsearch APIs. You use the configuration service to create and manage your domains. The regional configuration service endpoints have this format:
es.
region
.amazonaws.com
For example, es.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
. For a list of supported regions, see Regions and Endpoints in the AWS General Reference.
Amazon ES provides a single service endpoint for a domain:
http://search-domainname
-domainid
.us-east-1.es.amazonaws.com
You use a domain’s endpoint to upload data, submit search requests, and perform any other supported Elasticsearch operations.
An instance type defines the CPU, RAM, storage capacity, and hourly cost for an instance, the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that runs as a virtual server in the AWS Cloud. Choose the instance type and the number of instances for your domain based on the amount of data you have and the number of requests you anticipate. For guidance, see Sizing Amazon ES Domains.
For general information about instance types, see Amazon Elasticsearch Service Pricing.
When you create a domain, you choose an initial number of Elasticsearch instances and an instance type. However, these initial choices might not be adequate over time. You can easily accommodate growth by scaling your Amazon ES domain horizontally (more instances) or vertically (larger instance types). Scaling is simple and requires no downtime. To learn more, see Configuring Amazon ES Domains and About Configuration Changes.
You have the option of configuring your Amazon ES domain to use an Amazon EBS volume for storing indices rather than the default storage provided by the instance. An Amazon EBS volume is a durable, block-level storage device that you can attach to a single instance. Amazon ES supports the following EBS volume types:
For an overview, see Amazon EBS Volumes in the Amazon EC2 documentation. For procedures that show you how to use Amazon EBS volumes for your Amazon ES domain, see Configuring EBS-based Storage. For information about the minimum and maximum size of supported EBS volumes in an Amazon ES domain, see EBS Volume Size Limits.
If you use a programming language that AWS provides an SDK for, we recommend that you use the SDK to submit HTTP requests to AWS. The AWS SDKs greatly simplify the process of signing requests and save you a significant amount of time compared to natively accessing the Elasticsearch APIs. The SDKs integrate easily with your development environment and provide easy access to related commands. You also can use the Amazon ES console and AWS CLI to submit signed requests with no additional effort.
If you choose to call the Elasticsearch APIs directly, you must sign your own requests. Configuration service requests must always be signed. All requests must be signed unless you configure anonymous access for those services. Use the following procedure to sign a request:
Amazon ES supports authentication using AWS Signature Version 4. For more information, see Signature Version 4 Signing Process. For some examples of signed requests to the Elasticsearch APIs, see Programmatic Indexing.
Note
The service ignores parameters passed in URLs for HTTP POST requests that are signed with Signature Version 4.
Amazon ES commonly is used for the following services:
Amazon ES integrates with the following services to provide data ingestion:
With AWS, you pay only for what you use. For Amazon ES, you pay for each hour of use of an EC2 instance and for the cumulative size of any EBS storage volumes attached to your instances. Standard AWS data transfer charges also apply.
However, a notable data transfer exception exists. If you use zone awareness, Amazon ES does not bill for traffic between the two Availability Zones in which the domain resides. Significant data transfer occurs within a domain during shard allocation and rebalancing. Amazon ES neither meters nor bills for this traffic.
For full pricing details, see Amazon Elasticsearch Service Pricing. For information on charges incurred during configuration changes, see Charges for Configuration Changes.
If you qualify for the AWS Free Tier, you receive up to 750 hours per month of use with the t2.micro.elasticsearch
or instancet2.small.elasticsearch
types. You also receive up to 10 GB of Amazon EBS storage (Magnetic or General Purpose). For more information, see AWS Free Tier.
You can complete the following steps by using the Amazon ES console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS SDK:
For information about installing and setting up the AWS CLI, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.
Source: What Is Amazon Elasticsearch Service? – Amazon Elasticsearch Service