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:

  • Cluster scaling options
  • Self-healing clusters
  • Replication for high availability
  • Data durability
  • Enhanced security
  • Node monitoring

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.

Features of Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Amazon ES includes the following features:

Scale

  • Numerous configurations of CPU, memory, and storage capacity, known as instance types
  • Up to 1.5 PB of instance storage
  • Amazon EBS storage volumes

Security

  • AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) access control
  • Easy integration with Amazon VPC and VPC security groups
  • Encryption of data at rest

Stability

  • Multiple geographical locations for your resources, known as regions and Availability Zones
  • Dedicated master nodes to offload cluster management tasks
  • Automated snapshots to back up and restore Amazon ES domains and replicate domains across Availability Zones
  • Cluster node allocation across two Availability Zones in the same region, known as zone awareness

Integration with Popular Services

  • Data visualization using Kibana
  • Integration with Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring Amazon ES domain metrics and setting alarms
  • Integration with AWS CloudTrail for auditing configuration API calls to Amazon ES domains
  • Integration with Amazon S3, Amazon Kinesis, and Amazon DynamoDB for loading streaming data into Amazon ES

Supported Elasticsearch Versions

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:

  • Support for Painless scripting – Painless is an Elasticsearch built-in scripting language. Painless lets you run advanced queries against your data and automate operations like partial index updates in a fast, highly secure way.
  • Higher indexing performance – The 5.x and 6.x versions of Elasticsearch provide better indexing capabilities that significantly increase the throughput of data updates.
  • Improved aggregations – The 5.x and 6.x versions of Elasticsearch offer several aggregation improvements, such as recalculating aggregations only when the data changes. These versions also deliver faster query performance.

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.

Getting Started with Amazon Elasticsearch Service

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

Signing Up for AWS

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

  1. Open https://aws.amazon.com/, and then choose 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.

  2. Follow the online instructions.Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a PIN using the phone keypad.

You must enter payment information before you can begin using Amazon ES. Note your AWS account number, because you’ll need it later.

Accessing Amazon Elasticsearch Service

You can access Amazon ES through the Amazon ES console, the AWS SDKs, or the AWS CLI.

  • The Amazon ES console lets you create, configure, and monitor your domains. Using the console is the easiest way to get started with Amazon ES.
  • The AWS SDKs support all the Amazon ES configuration API operations, making it easy to manage your domains using your preferred technology. The SDKs automatically sign requests as needed using your AWS credentials.
  • The AWS CLI wraps all the Amazon ES configuration API operations, providing a simple way to create and configure domains. The AWS CLI automatically signs requests as needed using your AWS credentials.

    Regions and Endpoints for Amazon Elasticsearch Service

    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.

    Choosing Instance Types

    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.

    Scaling in Amazon Elasticsearch Service

    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.

    Using Amazon EBS Volumes for Storage

    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:

    • Magnetic
    • General Purpose (SSD)
    • Provisioned IOPS (SSD)

    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.

    Signing Service Requests

    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:

    1. Calculate a digital signature using a cryptographic hash function. The input must include the text of your request and your secret access key.The function returns a hash value based on your input.
    2. Include the digital signature in the Authorization header of your request.The service recalculates the signature using the same hash function and input that you used. If the resulting signature matches the signature in the request, the service processes the request. Otherwise, the service rejects the 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:

    AWS CloudTrail
    Use AWS CloudTrail to get a history of the Amazon ES API calls and related events for your account. CloudTrail is a web service that records API calls from your accounts and delivers the resulting log files to your Amazon S3 bucket. You also can use CloudTrail to track changes that were made to your AWS resources. For more information, see Auditing Amazon Elasticsearch Service Domains with AWS CloudTrail.
    Amazon CloudWatch
    An Amazon ES domain automatically sends metrics to Amazon CloudWatch so that you can gather and analyze performance statistics. You can monitor these metrics by using the AWS CLI or the AWS SDKs. For more information, see Monitoring Cluster Metrics and Statistics with Amazon CloudWatch (Console).
    Kinesis
    Kinesis is a managed service that scales elastically for real-time processing of streaming data at a massive scale. Amazon ES provides Lambda sample code for integration with Kinesis. For more information, see Loading Streaming Data into Amazon ES From Kinesis.
    Amazon S3
    Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) provides storage for the Internet. You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time, from anywhere on the web. Amazon ES provides Lambda sample code for integration with Amazon S3. For more information, see Loading Streaming Data into Amazon ES from Amazon S3.
    AWS IAM
    AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that you can use to manage users and user permissions in AWS. You can use IAM to create user-based access policies for your Amazon ES domains. For more information, see the IAM documentation.

    Amazon ES integrates with the following services to provide data ingestion:

    AWS Lambda
    AWS Lambda is a zero-administration compute platform for backend web developers that run your code in the AWS Cloud. Amazon ES provides sample code to run on Lambda that integrates with Kinesis and Amazon S3. For more information, see Loading Streaming Data into Amazon ES.
    Amazon DynamoDB
    Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that provides fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability. Amazon ES provides a Logstash plugin to support DynamoDB Streams and to sign AWS service requests.

    Pricing for Amazon Elasticsearch Service

    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.elasticsearchor 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

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