Failed to update system index metadata – How to solve this OpenSearch error

Overview

Search or indexing requests will usually be load-balanced across the OpenSearch data nodes, and the node that receives the request will relay requests to other nodes as necessary and coordinate the response back to the user.

Notes and good things to know

The key elements to clustering are:

Cluster State – Refers to information about which indices are in the cluster, their data mappings and other information that must be shared between all the nodes to ensure that all operations across the cluster are coherent.

Master Node – Each cluster must elect a single master node responsible for coordinating the cluster and ensuring that each node contains an up-to-date copy of the cluster state.

Cluster Formation – OpenSearch requires a set of configurations to determine how the cluster is formed, which nodes can join the cluster, and how the nodes collectively elect a master node responsible for controlling the cluster state. These configurations are usually held in the opensearch.yml config file, environment variables on the node, or within the cluster state.

Node Roles – In small clusters it is common for all nodes to fill all roles; all nodes can store data, become master nodes or process ingestion pipelines. However as the cluster grows, it is common to allocate specific roles to specific nodes in order to simplify configuration and to make operation more efficient. In particular, it is common to define a limited number of dedicated master nodes.

Replication – Data may be replicated across a number of data nodes. This means that if one node goes down, data is not lost. It also means that a search request can be dealt with by more than one node.

Common problems

Many OpenSearch problems are caused by operations which place an excessive burden on the cluster because they require an excessive amount of information to be held and transmitted between the nodes as part of the cluster state. For example:

• Shards too small
• Too many fields (field explosion)

Problems may also be caused by inadequate configurations causing situations where the OpenSearch cluster is unable to safely elect a Master node. These type problems include: 

• Master node not discovered
• Split brain problem

Backups

Because OpenSearch is a clustered technology, it is not sufficient to have backups of each node’s data directory. This is because the backups will have been made at different times and so there may not be complete coherency between them. As such, the only way to backup an OpenSearch cluster is through the use of snapshots, which contain the full picture of an index at any one time.

Cluster resilience

When designing an OpenSearch cluster, it is important to think about cluster resilience. In particular – what happens when a single node goes down? And for larger clusters where several nodes may share common services such as a network or power supply – what happens if that network or power supply goes down? This is where it is useful to ensure that the master eligible nodes are spread across availability zones, and to use shard allocation awareness to ensure that shards are spread across different racks or availability zones in your data center.

Quick links

• Overview
• Examples
  • Create index
  • List indices
  • Index a document
  • Query an index
  • Query multiple indices
  • Delete indices
• Common problems

Overview

In OpenSearch, an index (plural: indices) contains a schema and can have one or more shards and replicas. An OpenSearch index is divided into shards and each shard is an instance of a Lucene index.

Indices are used to store the documents in dedicated data structures corresponding to the data type of fields. For example, text fields are stored inside an inverted index whereas numeric and geo fields are stored inside BKD trees.

Examples

Create index

The following example is based on OpenSearch version 5.x onwards. An index with two shards, each having one replica will be created with the name test_index1

PUT /test_index1?pretty
{
    "settings" : {
        "number_of_shards" : 2,
        "number_of_replicas" : 1
    },
    "mappings" : {
        "properties" : {
            "tags" : { "type" : "keyword" },
            "updated_at" : { "type" : "date" }
        }
    }
}

List indices

All the index names and their basic information can be retrieved using the following command:

GET _cat/indices?v

Index a document

Let’s add a document in the index with the command below:

PUT test_index1/_doc/1
{
  "tags": [
    "opster",
    "OpenSearch"
  ],
  "date": "01-01-2020"
}

Query an index

GET test_index1/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match_all": {}
  }
}

Query multiple indices

It is possible to search multiple indices with a single request. If it is a raw HTTP request, index names should be sent in comma-separated format, as shown in the example below, and in the case of a query via a programming language client such as python or Java, index names are to be sent in a list format.

GET test_index1,test_index2/_search

Delete indices

DELETE test_index1

Common problems

DELETE /*

action.destructive_requires_name: true

Overview

Metadata in OpenSearch refers to additional information stored for each document. This is achieved using the specific metadata fields available in OpenSearch. The default behavior of some of these metadata fields can be customized during mapping creation.

Examples

Using _meta meta-field for storing application-specific information with the mapping:

PUT /my_index?pretty
{
  "mappings": {
    "_meta": { 
      "domain": "security",
      "release_information": {
        "date": "18-01-2020",
        "version": "7.5"
      }
    }
  }
}

Notes

• Meta fields available include: _index, _type, _id, _source, _size, and _field_name.