Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch allows you to upload and install a custom or open source
plug-in. This topic describes the procedure in detail.
Limits
You are not allowed to upload plug-ins whose security policies define operation permissions,
such as elasticsearch-analysis-hanlp.
Prerequisites
- The plug-in that you want to upload is prepared. Make sure that the plug-in is usable
and secure.
The name of the plug-in file you upload must be 8 to 128 characters in length and
can contain letters, digits, hyphens (-), and periods (.). The file name extension
must be .zip.
Notice Before you upload the plug-in, we recommend that you perform a test on a self-managed
Elasticsearch cluster of the same version as your Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch cluster.
If the test is successful, upload the plug-in. For more information, see
Installing Plugins.
- If you want to upload a custom SQL plug-in, make sure that the xpack.sql.enabled parameter in the YML configuration file of your Elasticsearch cluster is set to false.
For more information, see Configure the YML file.
Procedure
- Log on to the Elasticsearch console.
- In the left-side navigation pane, click Elasticsearch Clusters.
- Navigate to the desired cluster.
- In the top navigation bar, select the resource group to which the cluster belongs
and the region where the cluster resides.
- In the left-side navigation pane, click Elasticsearch Clusters. On the Elasticsearch Clusters page, find the cluster and click its ID.
- In the left-side navigation pane of the page that appears, click Plug-ins.
- On the Plug-ins page, click the Custom Plug-ins tab. Then, click Upload.

Warning The upload of a custom plug-in triggers a restart of the Elasticsearch cluster, and
the plug-in may affect the stability of the cluster. Make sure that the custom plug-in
is usable and secure. We recommend that you upload a custom plug-in during off-peak
hours.
- In the Upload Plug-in dialog box, click Select files, or drag and drop files to this area. Then, select the custom plug-in that you want to upload and click Open.
You can also drag and drop a custom plug-in file to this area and upload the plug-in.
The following figure shows that the plug-in file elasticsearch-sql-6.7.0.0.zip is
added.

- Read the precautions, select the check box, and then click Upload.
The system then restarts the cluster. We recommend that you upload a plug-in during
off-peak hours. After the cluster is restarted, you can check the plug-in on the
Custom Plug-ins tab. If the
state of the plug-in is
Installed, the plug-in is successfully uploaded and installed.

If you no longer require the plug-in, find it on the Custom Plug-ins tab and click
Remove in the Actions column. For more information, see Install and remove a built-in plug-in.
Notice
- If an error occurs when you upload or install a custom plug-in, you can follow the
instructions provided in Installation errors of a custom plug-in to locate and resolve the issue.
- Plug-ins are not automatically updated with Elasticsearch. To update a plug-in, you
must manually upload a new version of the plug-in.
- By default, custom plug-ins cannot access the Internet. If your cluster is deployed
in the new network architecture, you can use the PrivateLink service to establish
a private connection for the cluster and enable the custom plug-ins that are installed
for the cluster to access the Internet. For more information, see Configure a private connection for an Elasticsearch cluster. If your cluster is deployed in the original network architecture, the custom plug-ins
can access only the virtual private cloud (VPC) where the cluster resides.