OpenSearch + Dashboards

intermediate

Open source search and analytics suite.

Overview

OpenSearch is a community-driven, open source search and analytics suite derived from Elasticsearch 7.10.2 and Kibana 7.10.2. Created by Amazon as a response to Elastic's license change, OpenSearch maintains full compatibility with the Elasticsearch REST APIs while remaining under the Apache 2.0 license. It provides distributed search capabilities, real-time analytics, and machine learning features for handling large-scale data workloads across various use cases from log analytics to application search. This deployment consists of two services: a single-node OpenSearch cluster configured for standalone operation, and OpenSearch Dashboards for data visualization and cluster management. The OpenSearch service runs with 512MB heap memory allocation and operates in single-node discovery mode, making it suitable for development, testing, or small production workloads. The dashboards service connects directly to the OpenSearch instance over HTTPS, providing a web-based interface for data exploration, visualization creation, and cluster administration. This configuration is ideal for teams migrating from Elasticsearch who want to maintain API compatibility, organizations requiring open source search solutions without licensing restrictions, and developers building search-driven applications. The combination provides both the search engine capabilities and the visualization tools needed for comprehensive data analysis workflows, from ingesting documents to creating interactive dashboards and monitoring search performance.

Key Features

Full Elasticsearch REST API compatibility for seamless migration from existing applications
Built-in security with TLS encryption and authentication enabled by default
Real-time search and analytics with support for complex queries and aggregations
Machine learning capabilities including anomaly detection and k-NN search
Index State Management (ISM) for automated lifecycle policies and data retention
Performance analyzer for monitoring cluster health and query performance
Cross-cluster replication support for disaster recovery and data distribution
Plugin architecture with support for custom analyzers, processors, and extensions

Common Use Cases

1Application search functionality for e-commerce, content management, or documentation platforms
2Log analytics and monitoring for DevOps teams collecting application and infrastructure logs
3Business intelligence dashboards combining search results with data visualizations
4Security information and event management (SIEM) for analyzing security logs and alerts
5Real-time analytics for user behavior tracking and product recommendation engines
6Migration testing environment for teams moving away from Elastic Stack
7Development and staging environments requiring lightweight search infrastructure

Prerequisites

Minimum 2GB RAM available for containers (512MB each for OpenSearch JVM plus overhead)
Docker host with vm.max_map_count set to at least 262144 for OpenSearch memory mapping
Ports 9200, 9600, and 5601 available on the host system
ADMIN_PASSWORD environment variable set with at least 8 characters including uppercase, lowercase, and numbers
Understanding of Elasticsearch query DSL and index management concepts
Basic knowledge of Lucene query syntax for search operations

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  opensearch: 
3    image: opensearchproject/opensearch:latest
4    environment: 
5      - cluster.name=opensearch-cluster
6      - node.name=opensearch-node
7      - discovery.type=single-node
8      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
9      - OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
10      - OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
11    ulimits: 
12      memlock: 
13        soft: -1
14        hard: -1
15      nofile: 
16        soft: 65536
17        hard: 65536
18    volumes: 
19      - opensearch-data:/usr/share/opensearch/data
20    ports: 
21      - "9200:9200"
22      - "9600:9600"
23    networks: 
24      - opensearch-network
25    restart: unless-stopped
26
27  dashboards: 
28    image: opensearchproject/opensearch-dashboards:latest
29    environment: 
30      - OPENSEARCH_HOSTS=["https://opensearch:9200"]
31    ports: 
32      - "5601:5601"
33    depends_on: 
34      - opensearch
35    networks: 
36      - opensearch-network
37    restart: unless-stopped
38
39volumes: 
40  opensearch-data: 
41
42networks: 
43  opensearch-network: 
44    driver: bridge

.env Template

.env

1# OpenSearch
2ADMIN_PASSWORD=SecurePassword123!
3
4# Password requirements:
5# Min 8 chars, uppercase, lowercase, number, special char

Usage Notes

1OpenSearch at https://localhost:9200
2Dashboards at http://localhost:5601
3Default user: admin
4REST API compatible
5Kibana alternative

Individual Services(2 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

opensearch

opensearch:
  image: opensearchproject/opensearch:latest
  environment:
    - cluster.name=opensearch-cluster
    - node.name=opensearch-node
    - discovery.type=single-node
    - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
    - OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
    - OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
  ulimits:
    memlock:
      soft: -1
      hard: -1
    nofile:
      soft: 65536
      hard: 65536
  volumes:
    - opensearch-data:/usr/share/opensearch/data
  ports:
    - "9200:9200"
    - "9600:9600"
  networks:
    - opensearch-network
  restart: unless-stopped

dashboards

dashboards:
  image: opensearchproject/opensearch-dashboards:latest
  environment:
    - OPENSEARCH_HOSTS=["https://opensearch:9200"]
  ports:
    - "5601:5601"
  depends_on:
    - opensearch
  networks:
    - opensearch-network
  restart: unless-stopped

Quick Start

terminal

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  opensearch:
5    image: opensearchproject/opensearch:latest
6    environment:
7      - cluster.name=opensearch-cluster
8      - node.name=opensearch-node
9      - discovery.type=single-node
10      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
11      - OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
12      - OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
13    ulimits:
14      memlock:
15        soft: -1
16        hard: -1
17      nofile:
18        soft: 65536
19        hard: 65536
20    volumes:
21      - opensearch-data:/usr/share/opensearch/data
22    ports:
23      - "9200:9200"
24      - "9600:9600"
25    networks:
26      - opensearch-network
27    restart: unless-stopped
28
29  dashboards:
30    image: opensearchproject/opensearch-dashboards:latest
31    environment:
32      - OPENSEARCH_HOSTS=["https://opensearch:9200"]
33    ports:
34      - "5601:5601"
35    depends_on:
36      - opensearch
37    networks:
38      - opensearch-network
39    restart: unless-stopped
40
41volumes:
42  opensearch-data:
43
44networks:
45  opensearch-network:
46    driver: bridge
47EOF
48
49# 2. Create the .env file
50cat > .env << 'EOF'
51# OpenSearch
52ADMIN_PASSWORD=SecurePassword123!
53
54# Password requirements:
55# Min 8 chars, uppercase, lowercase, number, special char
56EOF
57
58# 3. Start the services
59docker compose up -d
60
61# 4. View logs
62docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/opensearch-complete/run | bash

Troubleshooting

OpenSearch fails to start with memory errors: Increase Docker memory limits or adjust OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS heap size
Dashboards shows 'Unable to connect to OpenSearch' error: Verify opensearch service is healthy and check network connectivity between containers
Authentication failed with admin user: Ensure ADMIN_PASSWORD environment variable is set and meets complexity requirements
Bootstrap check failures on startup: Set vm.max_map_count=262144 on Docker host system using sysctl
Port binding errors on 9200 or 5601: Check for conflicting services and ensure ports are not already in use
Low disk watermark exceeded warnings: Monitor opensearch-data volume usage and configure appropriate disk space

Community Notes

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Get all files in a ready-to-deploy package

Includes docker-compose.yml, .env template, README, and license

Components

opensearchopensearch-dashboards

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