|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +navigation_title: "Serverless differences" |
| 3 | +mapped_pages: |
| 4 | + - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/serverless/current/elasticsearch-differences.html |
| 5 | +--- |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +# Differences from other {{es}} offerings [elasticsearch-differences] |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +[{{es-serverless}}](docs-content://solutions/search.md) handles all the infrastructure management for you, providing a fully managed {{es}} service. |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +If you’ve used {{es}} before, you’ll notice some differences in how you work with the service on {{serverless-full}}, because a number of APIs and settings are not required for serverless projects. |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +This guide helps you understand what’s different, what’s available, and how to work effectively when running {{es}} on {{serverless-full}}. |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +## Fully managed infrastructure [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-infrastructure-management] |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +{{es-serverless}} manages all infrastructure automatically, including: |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +* Cluster scaling and optimization |
| 22 | +* Node management and allocation |
| 23 | +* Shard distribution and replication |
| 24 | +* Resource utilization and monitoring |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +This fully managed approach means many traditional {{es}} infrastructure APIs and settings are not available to end users, as detailed in the following sections. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +## Index size guidelines [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-index-size] |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +To ensure optimal performance, follow these recommendations for sizing individual indices on {{es-serverless}}: |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +| Use case | Maximum index size | Project configuration | |
| 34 | +| --- | --- | --- | |
| 35 | +| Vector search | 150GB | Vector optimized | |
| 36 | +| General search (non data-stream) | 300GB | General purpose | |
| 37 | +| Other uses (non data-stream) | 600GB | General purpose | |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +For large datasets that exceed the recommended maximum size for a single index, consider splitting your data across smaller indices and using an alias to search them collectively. |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +These recommendations do not apply to indices using better binary quantization (BBQ). Refer to [vector quantization](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/dense-vector.md#dense-vector-quantization) in the core {{es}} docs for more information. |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +## API availability [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-apis-availability] |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +Because {{es-serverless}} manages infrastructure automatically, certain APIs are not available, while others remain fully accessible. |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +::::{tip} |
| 49 | +Refer to the [{{es-serverless}} API reference](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/elasticsearch-serverless) for a complete list of available APIs. |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +:::: |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | + |
| 54 | +The following categories of operations are unavailable: |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +Infrastructure operations |
| 57 | +: * All `_nodes/*` operations |
| 58 | +* All `_cluster/*` operations |
| 59 | +* Most `_cat/*` operations, except for index-related operations such as `/_cat/indices` and `/_cat/aliases` |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | +Storage and backup |
| 63 | +: * All `_snapshot/*` operations |
| 64 | +* Repository management operations |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +Index management |
| 68 | +: * `indices/close` operations |
| 69 | +* `indices/open` operations |
| 70 | +* Recovery and stats operations |
| 71 | +* Force merge operations |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +When attempting to use an unavailable API, you’ll receive a clear error message: |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +```json |
| 77 | +{ |
| 78 | + "error": { |
| 79 | + "root_cause": [ |
| 80 | + { |
| 81 | + "type": "api_not_available_exception", |
| 82 | + "reason": "Request for uri [/<API_ENDPOINT>] with method [<METHOD>] exists but is not available when running in serverless mode" |
| 83 | + } |
| 84 | + ], |
| 85 | + "status": 410 |
| 86 | + } |
| 87 | +} |
| 88 | +``` |
| 89 | + |
| 90 | + |
| 91 | +## Settings availability [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-settings-availability] |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +In {{es-serverless}}, you can only configure [index-level settings](/reference/elasticsearch/index-settings/index.md). Cluster-level settings and node-level settings are not required by end users and the `elasticsearch.yml` file is fully managed by Elastic. |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +Available settings |
| 96 | +: **Index-level settings**: Settings that control how {{es}} documents are processed, stored, and searched are available to end users. These include: |
| 97 | + |
| 98 | + * Analysis configuration |
| 99 | + * Mapping parameters |
| 100 | + * Search/query settings |
| 101 | + * Indexing settings such as `refresh_interval` |
| 102 | + |
| 103 | + |
| 104 | +Managed settings |
| 105 | +: **Infrastructure-related settings**: Settings that affect cluster resources or data distribution are not available to end users. These include: |
| 106 | + |
| 107 | + * Node configurations |
| 108 | + * Cluster topology |
| 109 | + * Shard allocation |
| 110 | + * Resource management |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | + |
| 113 | + |
| 114 | +## Feature availability [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-feature-categories] |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | +Some features that are available in Elastic Cloud Hosted and self-managed offerings are not available in {{es-serverless}}. These features have either been replaced by a new feature, are planned to be released in future, or are not applicable in the new serverless architecture. |
| 117 | + |
| 118 | + |
| 119 | +### Replaced features [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-features-replaced] |
| 120 | + |
| 121 | +These features have been replaced by a new feature and are therefore not available on {{es-serverless}}: |
| 122 | + |
| 123 | +* **Index lifecycle management ({{ilm-init}})** is not available, in favor of [**data stream lifecycle**](docs-content://manage-data/data-store/index-basics.md). |
| 124 | + |
| 125 | + In an Elastic Cloud Hosted or self-managed environment, {{ilm-init}} lets you automatically transition indices through data tiers according to your performance needs and retention requirements. This allows you to balance hardware costs with performance. {{es-serverless}} eliminates this complexity by optimizing your cluster performance for you. |
| 126 | + |
| 127 | + Data stream lifecycle is an optimized lifecycle tool that lets you focus on the most common lifecycle management needs, without unnecessary hardware-centric concepts like data tiers. |
| 128 | + |
| 129 | +* **Watcher** is not available, in favor of [**Alerts**](docs-content://explore-analyze/alerts-cases/alerts.md#rules-alerts). |
| 130 | + |
| 131 | + Kibana Alerts allows rich integrations across use cases like APM, metrics, security, and uptime. Prepackaged rule types simplify setup and hide the details of complex, domain-specific detections, while providing a consistent interface across Kibana. |
| 132 | + |
| 133 | + |
| 134 | + |
| 135 | +### Planned features [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-feature-planned] |
| 136 | + |
| 137 | +The following features are planned for future support in all {{serverless-full}} projects: |
| 138 | + |
| 139 | +* Reindexing from remote clusters |
| 140 | +* Cross-project search and replication |
| 141 | +* Snapshot and restore |
| 142 | +* Migrations from non-serverless deployments |
| 143 | +* Audit logging |
| 144 | +* Clone index API |
| 145 | +* Traffic filtering and VPCs |
| 146 | + |
| 147 | + |
| 148 | + |
| 149 | +### Unplanned features [elasticsearch-differences-serverless-feature-unavailable] |
| 150 | + |
| 151 | +The following features are not available in {{es-serverless}} and are not planned for future support: |
| 152 | + |
| 153 | +* [Custom plugins and bundles](docs-content://deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/upload-custom-plugins-bundles.md) |
| 154 | +* {{es}} for Apache Hadoop |
| 155 | +* [Scripted metric aggregations](/reference/data-analysis/aggregations/search-aggregations-metrics-scripted-metric-aggregation.md) |
| 156 | +* Managed web crawler: You can use the [self-managed web crawler](https://github.com/elastic/crawler) instead. |
| 157 | +* Managed Search connectors: You can use [self-managed Search connectors](/reference/ingestion-tools/search-connectors/self-managed-connectors.md) instead. |
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