Migrate from Elasticsearch to Zilliz Cloud
This topic describes how Zilliz Cloud handles data type mapping, collection naming rules, and considerations when migrating from Elasticsearch.
Prerequisites
Before starting your Elasticsearch to Zilliz Cloud migration, ensure you meet these requirements:
Elasticsearch requirements
Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
Version compatibility | Elasticsearch 7.x or later |
Network access | Source cluster must be accessible from the public internet |
API access | Valid cluster endpoint or cloud ID with appropriate credentials |
Vector field requirement | Each source index must contain at least one dense vector field |
Zilliz Cloud requirements
Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
User role | Organization Owner or Project Admin |
Cluster capacity | Sufficient storage and compute resources (use the CU calculator to estimate CU size) |
Network access | Add Zilliz Cloud IPs to allowlists if using network restrictions |
Data type mapping
Understanding how Elasticsearch data types map to Zilliz Cloud is crucial for planning your migration:
Elasticsearch Field Type | Zilliz Cloud Field Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
Primary key | Primary key | Automatically mapped. Enable Auto ID to generate new IDs (original values will be discarded). |
dense_vector | FLOAT_VECTOR | Vector dimensions remain unchanged. Specify L2 or IP as the metric type. |
text, string, keyword, ip, date, timestamp | VARCHAR | Set Max Length (1 to 65,535 bytes). Strings exceeding the limit can trigger migration errors. |
long | INT64 | - |
integer | INT32 | - |
short | INT16 | - |
byte | INT8 | - |
double | DOUBLE | - |
float | FLOAT | - |
boolean | BOOL | - |
object | JSON | - |
arrays | ARRAY | - |
Elasticsearch-specific handling rules
Collection naming rules
Elasticsearch index names are transferred to Zilliz Cloud with the following considerations:
Scenario | Impact | Solution |
|---|---|---|
Default naming | Collection names match source index names exactly | Names are preserved as-is from OpenSearch |
Special characters | Index names with hyphens (-) or dots (.) will cause errors and prevent job submission | Manually rename indexes to use underscores or other valid characters |
Naming conflicts | Cannot submit job if a collection with the same name already exists | Delete existing collection, choose a different database, or rename during migration configuration |
Migration considerations
The following features are not supported for Elasticsearch migration:
Limitation | Impact | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
Dynamic to fixed field conversion | Cannot convert existing dynamic fields to fixed types | Fields maintain their original dynamic nature |
Add more fields | Cannot add new fields during migration | Only existing Elasticsearch fields are migrated |
Sparse vectors | Not supported in current release | Consider dense vector alternatives or contact support for roadmap |