elasticsearch/docs/reference/docs/bulk.asciidoc

[[docs-bulk]]
=== Bulk API
++++
<titleabbrev>Bulk</titleabbrev>
++++

Performs multiple indexing or delete operations in a single API call. 
This reduces overhead and can greatly increase indexing speed.

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
POST _bulk
{ "index" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "1" } }
{ "field1" : "value1" }
{ "delete" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "2" } }
{ "create" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "3" } }
{ "field1" : "value3" }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "1", "_index" : "test"} }
{ "doc" : {"field2" : "value2"} }
--------------------------------------------------

[[docs-bulk-api-request]]
==== {api-request-title}

`POST /_bulk`

`POST /<target>/_bulk`

[[docs-bulk-api-desc]]
==== {api-description-title}

Provides a way to perform multiple `index`, `create`, `delete`, and `update` actions in a single request.

The actions are specified in the request body using a newline delimited JSON (NDJSON) structure:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
action_and_meta_data\n
optional_source\n
action_and_meta_data\n
optional_source\n
....
action_and_meta_data\n
optional_source\n
--------------------------------------------------
// NOTCONSOLE

The `index` and `create` actions expect a source on the next line, 
and have the same semantics as the `op_type` parameter in the standard index API: 
`create` fails if a document with the same ID already exists in the target,
`index` adds or replaces a document as necessary. 

NOTE: <<data-streams,Data streams>> support only the `create` action. To update
or delete a document in a data stream, you must target the backing index
containing the document. See <<update-delete-docs-in-a-backing-index>>.

`update` expects that the partial doc, upsert, 
and script and its options are specified on the next line.

`delete` does not expect a source on the next line and 
has the same semantics as the standard delete API.

[NOTE]
====
The final line of data must end with a newline character `\n`. 
Each newline character may be preceded by a carriage return `\r`. 
When sending requests to the `_bulk` endpoint,
the `Content-Type` header should be set to `application/x-ndjson`.
====

Because this format uses literal `\n`'s as delimiters, 
make sure that the JSON actions and sources are not pretty printed.

If you provide a `<target>` in the request path, 
it is used for any actions that don't explicitly specify an `_index` argument.

A note on the format: The idea here is to make processing of this as
fast as possible. As some of the actions are redirected to other
shards on other nodes, only `action_meta_data` is parsed on the
receiving node side.

Client libraries using this protocol should try and strive to do
something similar on the client side, and reduce buffering as much as
possible.

There is no "correct" number of actions to perform in a single bulk request. 
Experiment with different settings to find the optimal size for your particular workload.

When using the HTTP API, make sure that the client does not send HTTP chunks, 
as this will slow things down.

[discrete]
[[bulk-clients]]
===== Client support for bulk requests

Some of the officially supported clients provide helpers to assist with
bulk requests and reindexing:

Go::

    See https://github.com/elastic/go-elasticsearch/tree/master/_examples/bulk#indexergo[esutil.BulkIndexer]

Perl::

    See https://metacpan.org/pod/Search::Elasticsearch::Client::5_0::Bulk[Search::Elasticsearch::Client::5_0::Bulk]
    and https://metacpan.org/pod/Search::Elasticsearch::Client::5_0::Scroll[Search::Elasticsearch::Client::5_0::Scroll]

Python::

    See https://elasticsearch-py.readthedocs.org/en/master/helpers.html[elasticsearch.helpers.*]

JavaScript::

    See {jsclient-current}/client-helpers.html[client.helpers.*]

.NET::
    See https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/net-api/current/indexing-documents.html#bulkall-observable[`BulkAllObservable`]

[discrete]
[[bulk-curl]]
===== Submitting bulk requests with cURL

If you're providing text file input to `curl`, you *must* use the
`--data-binary` flag instead of plain `-d`. The latter doesn't preserve
newlines. Example:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
$ cat requests
{ "index" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "1" } }
{ "field1" : "value1" }
$ curl -s -H "Content-Type: application/x-ndjson" -XPOST localhost:9200/_bulk --data-binary "@requests"; echo
{"took":7, "errors": false, "items":[{"index":{"_index":"test","_id":"1","_version":1,"result":"created","forced_refresh":false}}]}
--------------------------------------------------
// NOTCONSOLE
// Not converting to console because this shows how curl works

[discrete]
[[bulk-optimistic-concurrency-control]]
===== Optimistic Concurrency Control

Each `index` and `delete` action within a bulk API call may include the
`if_seq_no` and `if_primary_term` parameters in their respective action
and meta data lines. The `if_seq_no` and `if_primary_term` parameters control
how operations are executed, based on the last modification to existing
documents. See <<optimistic-concurrency-control>> for more details.


[discrete]
[[bulk-versioning]]
===== Versioning

Each bulk item can include the version value using the
`version` field. It automatically follows the behavior of the
index / delete operation based on the `_version` mapping. It also
support the `version_type` (see <<index-versioning, versioning>>).

[discrete]
[[bulk-routing]]
===== Routing

Each bulk item can include the routing value using the
`routing` field. It automatically follows the behavior of the
index / delete operation based on the `_routing` mapping.

NOTE: Data streams do not support custom routing. Instead, target the
appropriate backing index for the stream.

[discrete]
[[bulk-wait-for-active-shards]]
===== Wait For Active Shards

When making bulk calls, you can set the `wait_for_active_shards`
parameter to require a minimum number of shard copies to be active
before starting to process the bulk request. See
<<index-wait-for-active-shards,here>> for further details and a usage
example.

[discrete]
[[bulk-refresh]]
===== Refresh

Control when the changes made by this request are visible to search. See
<<docs-refresh,refresh>>.

NOTE: Only the shards that receive the bulk request will be affected by
`refresh`. Imagine a `_bulk?refresh=wait_for` request with three
documents in it that happen to be routed to different shards in an index
with five shards. The request will only wait for those three shards to
refresh. The other two shards that make up the index do not
participate in the `_bulk` request at all.

[discrete]
[[bulk-security]]
===== Security

See <<url-access-control>>.

[[docs-bulk-api-path-params]]
==== {api-path-parms-title}

`<target>`::
(Optional, string)
Name of the data stream, index, or index alias to perform bulk actions
on.

[[docs-bulk-api-query-params]]
==== {api-query-parms-title}

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=pipeline]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=refresh]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=routing]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=source]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=source_excludes]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=source_includes]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=timeout]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=wait_for_active_shards]

[[bulk-api-request-body]]
==== {api-request-body-title}
The request body contains a newline-delimited list of `create`, `delete`, `index`, 
and `update` actions and their associated source data.

`create`::
(Optional, string) 
Indexes the specified document if it does not already exist.
The following line must contain the source data to be indexed. 
+
--
include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=bulk-index]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=bulk-id]
--

`delete`::
(Optional, string) 
Removes the specified document from the index.
+
--
include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=bulk-index]

`_id`::
(Required, string) 
The document ID.
--

`index`::
(Optional, string) 
Indexes the specified document. 
If the document exists, replaces the document and increments the version.
The following line must contain the source data to be indexed. 
+
--
include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=bulk-index]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=bulk-id]
--

`update`::
(Optional, string) 
Performs a partial document update. 
The following line must contain the partial document and update options.
+
--
include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=bulk-index]

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=bulk-id]
--

`doc`::
(Optional, object) 
The partial document to index.
Required for `update` operations. 

`<fields>`::
(Optional, object) 
The document source to index.
Required for `create` and `index` operations. 

[role="child_attributes"]
[[bulk-api-response-body]]
==== {api-response-body-title}

The bulk API's response contains the individual results of each operation in the
request, returned in the order submitted. The success or failure of an
individual operation does not affect other operations in the request.

[[bulk-partial-responses]]
.Partial responses
****
To ensure fast responses, the bulk API will respond with partial results if one
or more shards fail. See <<shard-failures, Shard failures>> for more
information.
****

`took`::
(integer)
How long, in milliseconds, it took to process the bulk request.

`errors`::
(boolean)
If `true`, one or more of the operations in the bulk request did not complete
successfully.

`items`::
(array of objects)
Contains the result of each operation in the bulk request, in the order they
were submitted.
+
.Properties of `items` objects
[%collapsible%open]
====
<action>::
(object)
The parameter name is an action associated with the operation. Possible values
are `create`, `delete`, `index`, and `update`.
+
The parameter value is an object that contains information for the associated
operation.
+
.Properties of `<action>`
[%collapsible%open]
=====
`_index`::
(string)
Name of the index associated with the operation. If the operation targeted a
data stream, this is the backing index into which the document was written.

`_id`::
(integer)
The document ID associated with the operation.

`_version`::
(integer)
The document version associated with the operation. The document version is
incremented each time the document is updated.
+
This parameter is only returned for successful actions.

`result`::
(string)
Result of the operation. Successful values are `created`, `deleted`, and
`updated`.
+
This parameter is only returned for successful operations.

`_shards`::
(object)
Contains shard information for the operation.
+
This parameter is only returned for successful operations.
+
.Properties of `_shards`
[%collapsible%open]
======
`total`::
(integer)
Number of shards the operation attempted to execute on.

`successful`::
(integer)
Number of shards the operation succeeded on.

`failed`::
(integer)
Number of shards the operation attempted to execute on but failed.
======

`_seq_no`::
(integer)
The sequence number assigned to the document for the operation.
Sequence numbers are used to ensure an older version of a document
doesn’t overwrite a newer version. See <<optimistic-concurrency-control-index>>.
+
This parameter is only returned for successful operations.

`_primary_term`::
(integer)
The primary term assigned to the document for the operation.
See <<optimistic-concurrency-control-index>>.
+
This parameter is only returned for successful operations.

`status`::
(integer)
HTTP status code returned for the operation.

`error`::
(object)
Contains additional information about the failed operation.
+
The parameter is only returned for failed operations.
+
.Properties of `error`
[%collapsible%open]
======
`type`::
(string)
Error type for the operation.

`reason`::
(string)
Reason for the failed operation.

`index_uuid`::
(string)
The universally unique identifier (UUID) of the index associated with the failed
operation.

`shard`::
(string)
ID of the shard associated with the failed operation.

`index`::
(string)
Name of the index associated with the failed operation. If the operation
targeted a data stream, this is the backing index into which the document was
attempted to be written.
======
=====
====

[[docs-bulk-api-example]]
==== {api-examples-title}

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
POST _bulk
{ "index" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "1" } }
{ "field1" : "value1" }
{ "delete" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "2" } }
{ "create" : { "_index" : "test", "_id" : "3" } }
{ "field1" : "value3" }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "1", "_index" : "test"} }
{ "doc" : {"field2" : "value2"} }
--------------------------------------------------

The API returns the following result:

[source,console-result]
--------------------------------------------------
{
   "took": 30,
   "errors": false,
   "items": [
      {
         "index": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_id": "1",
            "_version": 1,
            "result": "created",
            "_shards": {
               "total": 2,
               "successful": 1,
               "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 201,
            "_seq_no" : 0,
            "_primary_term": 1
         }
      },
      {
         "delete": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_id": "2",
            "_version": 1,
            "result": "not_found",
            "_shards": {
               "total": 2,
               "successful": 1,
               "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 404,
            "_seq_no" : 1,
            "_primary_term" : 2
         }
      },
      {
         "create": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_id": "3",
            "_version": 1,
            "result": "created",
            "_shards": {
               "total": 2,
               "successful": 1,
               "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 201,
            "_seq_no" : 2,
            "_primary_term" : 3
         }
      },
      {
         "update": {
            "_index": "test",
            "_id": "1",
            "_version": 2,
            "result": "updated",
            "_shards": {
                "total": 2,
                "successful": 1,
                "failed": 0
            },
            "status": 200,
            "_seq_no" : 3,
            "_primary_term" : 4
         }
      }
   ]
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"took": 30/"took": $body.took/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"index_uuid": .../"index_uuid": $body.items.3.update.error.index_uuid/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : 0/"_seq_no" : $body.items.0.index._seq_no/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_primary_term" : 1/"_primary_term" : $body.items.0.index._primary_term/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : 1/"_seq_no" : $body.items.1.delete._seq_no/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_primary_term" : 2/"_primary_term" : $body.items.1.delete._primary_term/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : 2/"_seq_no" : $body.items.2.create._seq_no/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_primary_term" : 3/"_primary_term" : $body.items.2.create._primary_term/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : 3/"_seq_no" : $body.items.3.update._seq_no/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_primary_term" : 4/"_primary_term" : $body.items.3.update._primary_term/]

[discrete]
[[bulk-update]]
===== Bulk update example

When using the `update` action, `retry_on_conflict` can be used as a field in
the action itself (not in the extra payload line), to specify how many
times an update should be retried in the case of a version conflict.

The `update` action payload supports the following options: `doc`
(partial document), `upsert`, `doc_as_upsert`, `script`, `params` (for
script), `lang` (for script), and `_source`. See update documentation for details on
the options. Example with update actions:

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
POST _bulk
{ "update" : {"_id" : "1", "_index" : "index1", "retry_on_conflict" : 3} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"} }
{ "update" : { "_id" : "0", "_index" : "index1", "retry_on_conflict" : 3} }
{ "script" : { "source": "ctx._source.counter += params.param1", "lang" : "painless", "params" : {"param1" : 1}}, "upsert" : {"counter" : 1}}
{ "update" : {"_id" : "2", "_index" : "index1", "retry_on_conflict" : 3} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"}, "doc_as_upsert" : true }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "3", "_index" : "index1", "_source" : true} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"} }
{ "update" : {"_id" : "4", "_index" : "index1"} }
{ "doc" : {"field" : "value"}, "_source": true}
--------------------------------------------------

[discrete]
[[bulk-failures-ex]]
===== Example with failed actions

The following bulk API request includes operations that update non-existent
documents.

[source,console]
----
POST /_bulk
{ "update": {"_id": "5", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "foo"} }
{ "update": {"_id": "6", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "foo"} }
{ "create": {"_id": "7", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "my_field": "foo" }
----

Because these operations cannot complete successfully, the API returns a
response with an `errors` flag of `true`.

The response also includes an `error` object for any failed operations. The
`error` object contains additional information about the failure, such as the
error type and reason.

[source,console-result]
----
{
  "took": 486,
  "errors": true,
  "items": [
    {
      "update": {
        "_index": "index1",
        "_id": "5",
        "status": 404,
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[5]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "update": {
        "_index": "index1",
        "_id": "6",
        "status": 404,
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[6]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "create": {
        "_index": "index1",
        "_id": "7",
        "_version": 1,
        "result": "created",
        "_shards": {
          "total": 2,
          "successful": 1,
          "failed": 0
        },
        "_seq_no": 0,
        "_primary_term": 1,
        "status": 201
      }
    }
  ]
}
----
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"took": 486/"took": $body.took/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no": 0/"_seq_no": $body.items.2.create._seq_no/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA"/"index_uuid": $body.$_path/]

To return only information about failed operations, use the
<<common-options-response-filtering,`filter_path`>> query parameter with an
argument of `items.*.error`.

[source,console]
----
POST /_bulk?filter_path=items.*.error
{ "update": {"_id": "5", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "baz"} }
{ "update": {"_id": "6", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "baz"} }
{ "update": {"_id": "7", "_index": "index1"} }
{ "doc": {"my_field": "baz"} }
----
// TEST[continued]

The API returns the following result.

[source,console-result]
----
{
  "items": [
    {
      "update": {
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[5]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "update": {
        "error": {
          "type": "document_missing_exception",
          "reason": "[6]: document missing",
          "index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA",
          "shard": "0",
          "index": "index1"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
----
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"index_uuid": "aAsFqTI0Tc2W0LCWgPNrOA"/"index_uuid": $body.$_path/]