A later version may be incompatible with some configurations in an earlier version. If you do not modify these configurations before a version upgrade, your services may be affected after the upgrade. Therefore, before the upgrade, you must check for incompatible configurations and modify the configurations as required. This topic describes the manual checks that you must perform and the automatic check items before an upgrade from V5.6.16 to V6.3.2. It also provides the methods that can be used to modify the incompatible configurations.

Background information

When you check for incompatible configurations, take note of the following points:
  • Before a version upgrade, a precheck is performed. You must identify incompatible configurations based on the precheck results and modify the configurations as required. For more information, see Upgrade the version of a cluster.
  • The commands provided in this topic can be executed in the Kibana console. For more information about how to log on to the Kibana console, see Log on to the Kibana console.

Perform manual checks

  1. Split each multi-type index on the Elasticsearch V5.X cluster into multiple single-type indexes.
    Elasticsearch clusters of V6.X or later do not support multi-type indexes. If the V5.X cluster contains multi-type indexes, you can write data to the indexes but cannot create multi-type indexes after the cluster version is upgraded to V6.X. If you create multi-type indexes, errors are reported. Therefore, before the upgrade, we recommend that you split each multi-type index into single-type indexes.
  2. Check whether the cluster contains indexes that are in the close state. 
    GET _cat/indices?v
    Check for indexes that are in the close state
    • Yes: Run the following command to open the indexes that are in the close state:
      POST test/_open
    • No: Go to the next step.
  3. Check whether the cross-cluster search feature is enabled for the cluster. 
    GET _cluster/settings
    • Yes: Disable the feature. You can enable it after the upgrade.
      PUT _cluster/settings
{
  "persistent": {
    "search.remote.*": null
  },
  "transient": {
    "search.remote.*": null
  }
}
      Notice The search.remote parameter is used to configure the cross-cluster search feature in V5.X, whereas the cluster.remote parameter is used in V6.X.
    • No: No actions are required.

Automatic check items

Before you upgrade the version of your cluster, you must click Precheck to check the cluster. For more information, see Upgrade the version of a cluster. Then, the system performs a compatibility check based on the following table.

Table 1. Compatibility check items
The following table lists the parameters that are deprecated in V6.0 and later. For more information, see Breaking changes in 6.0.
Notice If the index template contains the related configurations listed in the following table after the version upgrade, the template cannot be used to create indexes.
No. Configuration level Category Parameter
1 Cluster Snapshot settings cluster.routing.allocation.snapshot.relocation_enabled
2 Storage throttling settings indices.store.throttle.type and indices.store.throttle.max_bytes_per_sec
3 Index Similarity settings index.similarity.base
4 Shadow replica settings index.shared_filesystem and index.shadow_replicas
5 Index storage settings index.store.type
6 Storage throttling settings index.store.throttle.type and index.store.throttle.max_bytes_per_sec
7 include_in_all setting in the mappings configuration of an index include_in_all
Note The indexes that are created before an upgrade from V5.X to V6.X and have this parameter configured can still be used after the upgrade. The indexes that are created after the upgrade do not support this parameter.
8 Version settings for index creation index.version.created
Note This parameter specifies that indexes cannot be upgraded across major versions. For example, you cannot directly upgrade the indexes created in V5.X to V7.X. Before an upgrade from V5.X to V7.X, you must call the reindex operation to migrate data in the indexes to a V7.X cluster. Then, delete the indexes from the V5.X cluster and upgrade the version of the V5.X cluster.
9 Index template Similarity settings index.similarity.base
10 Shadow replica settings index.shared_filesystem and index.shadow_replicas
11 Index storage settings index.store.type
12 Storage throttling settings index.store.throttle.type and index.store.throttle.max_bytes_per_sec
13 include_in_all setting in the mappings configuration of the index template include_in_all
14 _all setting in the mappings configuration of the index template _all
15 Type settings in the mappings configuration of the index template None
Note Check whether the mappings configuration in the index template contains multiple type settings.
Note The preceding check items are at the CRITICAL level. If a CRITICAL check item is reported, the cluster fails the compatibility check, and its version cannot be upgraded. A later version is incompatible with the configurations indicated by CRITICAL check items. If a WARNING check item is reported, the cluster fails the compatibility check, but its version can still be upgraded. The configurations indicated by WARNING check items are ignored after the upgrade.

Modify incompatible configurations

This section provides the methods that are used to modify incompatible configurations.
  • Cluster-level incompatible configurations

    For cluster-level incompatible configurations, you can disable the configurations.

    Configuration category Command to disable the configuration
    Snapshot settings 
    PUT _cluster/settings
{
  "persistent": {
    "cluster.routing.allocation.snapshot.relocation_enabled": null
  },
  "transient": {
    "cluster.routing.allocation.snapshot.relocation_enabled": null
  }
}
    Storage throttling settings 
    PUT _cluster/settings
{
  "persistent": {
    "indices.store.throttle.type": null,
    "indices.store.throttle.max_bytes_per_sec": null
  },
  "transient": {
    "indices.store.throttle.type": null,
    "indices.store.throttle.max_bytes_per_sec": null
  }
}
  • Index-level incompatible configurations

    For index-level incompatible configurations, you can disable the configurations.

    Configuration category Command to disable the configuration Additional information
    Similarity settings 
    PUT test_index/_settings
{
   "index.similarity.base.*": null
}
    		 These configurations can be modified only after indexes are closed. You cannot read data from or write data to closed indexes. After the modifications, you can open the indexes. The following example shows how to open and close the test_index index:
    • Close the index
      POST test_index/_close
    • Open the index
      POST test_index/_open
    Shadow replica settings 
    PUT test_index/_settings
{
    "index.shared_filesystem": null,
    "index.shadow_replicas": null
}
    Index storage settings 
    PUT test_index/_settings
{
   "index.store.type": null
}
    Storage throttling settings 
    PUT test_index/_settings
{
  "settings": {
    "index.store.throttle.type": null,
    "index.store.throttle.max_bytes_per_sec": null
  }
}
    		 None.
    Note Indexes that have the include_in_all parameter configured can still be used in the later version. You do not need to modify this parameter.
  • Index template-level incompatible configurations

    The following example shows how to modify configurations in the test_template index template:

    1. Run the GET _template/test_template command to query the test_template index template.

      The query result shows that the index template contains the following incompatible configurations: index storage settings, _all, and include_in_all. 

      {
 "test_template": {
   "order": 0,
   "template": "test_*",
   "settings": {
     "index": {
       "store": {
         "throttle": {
           "max_bytes_per_sec": "100m"
         }
       }
     }
   },
   "mappings": {
     "test_type": {
       "_all": {
         "enabled": true
       },
       "properties": {
         "test_field": {
           "type": "text",
           "include_in_all": true
         }
       }
     }
   },
   "aliases": {}
 }
}
    2. Delete the incompatible configurations and run the PUT _template/test_template command to update the index template.
      PUT _template/test_template
{
   "order": 0,
   "template": "test_*",
   "settings": {
   },
   "mappings": {
     "test_type": {
       "properties": {
         "test_field": {
           "type": "text"
         }
       }
     }
   },
   "aliases": {}
}