The ES Serverless service is ideal for fluctuating business workloads. Use it to ensure stability during peak periods, such as promotional events, or to reduce operational costs and manage data more efficiently.
The option to create retrieval-based general-purpose applications has been disabled. You can continue to use existing applications that you have already created.
We recommend that you create and use a Retrieval-Enhanced Edition (v8.17) application. Compared to the retrieval-based general-purpose application, this edition offers the latest vector and AI capabilities and supports scaling in seconds. For more information about choosing an application type, see Selection guide.
ES 7.x clients can use most features of ES 8.17 through a compatibility mode. For more information, see REST API compatibility.
Background information
An application is the basic service unit of the Serverless service. It provides resource isolation, access control, and an entry point to access Serverless resources.
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Each application has a unique endpoint for creating indexes, reading and writing data, and managing resources.
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Use different applications to manage and store data for different services or projects.
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Grant a Resource Access Management (RAM) user permissions on a specific application to achieve access control isolation.
Prerequisites
You have administrative permissions for the ES Serverless service. For more information, see Grant permissions to a RAM user.
Billing
Serverless applications are pay-as-you-go. Billable items include compute resources for writes and queries, and storage space. For more information about billing, see Serverless billing.
Procedure
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Log on to the Elasticsearch Serverless console.
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In the top menu bar, select the destination region.
NoteCurrently, only the China (Hangzhou), China (Beijing), China (Shanghai), and China (Shenzhen) regions are supported.
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In the navigation pane on the left, click Application Management.
On the Application Management page, click Create Application.
In the Create Application panel, configure basic settings for the application and click Next.
The following table describes some of the parameters.
Parameter
Description
Application name
The name of the application. You cannot change the application name after creation. The name must meet the following requirements:
The name must be unique for your Alibaba Cloud account in the same region.
The name must be 3 to 50 characters in length.
The name must start and end with a lowercase letter or a digit.
The name can contain only lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens (-). Consecutive hyphens are not allowed.
Region
The console automatically uses the region you selected. You cannot change this parameter on the creation page.
Elasticsearch version
Currently, only version 7.10 is supported.
Application type
Select retrieval-based general-purpose.
Auto scaling range for compute resources
The compute resources of a serverless application automatically scale within the specified range based on the workload:
Minimum compute resources: The minimum value is 2 CU. The step size is 2 CU.
Maximum compute resources: The minimum value is 4 CU, the maximum value is 96 CU, and the step size is 2 CU.
NoteA serverless application uses a CU (Capacity Unit) for per-second billing and scaling. Each CU provides performance approximately equivalent to 1 vCPU and 4 GiB of memory.
Each CU supports up to 40 GiB of index data. Therefore, the maximum index storage capacity is
Maximum index storage capacity = Maximum CUs in the auto scaling range × 40 GiB.Setting the minimum and maximum compute resources to the same value disables the auto scaling feature. We recommend that you do not use this configuration unless required for specific business scenarios.
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Configure the access settings for the application.
Parameter descriptions:
Parameter
Description
Network Access Method
Select a network access method:
Public Network Access: Access the Serverless application directly over the Internet. This method has potential security risks and is suitable for scenarios such as remote work, cross-region collaboration, or providing external services.
VPC Access (Recommended): Access the Serverless application through a virtual private cloud (VPC) for higher security.
Public Access Whitelist
For public network access, add the IP address of the target device.
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You can also click Add Current IP Address on the right side of the page to automatically add the IP address of your current device to the whitelist. Before using this feature, disable your local agent.
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For more information about public whitelists, see Obtain an IP address for the public access whitelist.
Private Endpoint
Private Access Whitelist
If you access the application through a VPC, configure the endpoint and private access whitelist. For more information, see Configure private network access for an application.
Username
The system automatically generates a username in the format of `application name + a three-digit random number or letter combination`. You can view the username on the application details page after the application is created.
User Password
Enter the password for the application.
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You can click Auto-generate Password to the right of the password field to automatically fill in a password.
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Click the
icon to the right of the password box to display the password in plaintext and copy it. -
If you forget the initial password, you can change the application password in the Basic Information section of the application details page after the application is created.
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Click Create Now.
You can view the created application in the application list on the Application Management page.
Application Status
Description
Creating
Data read/write and console operations are not supported for an application that is being created.
Running
The application is running normally.
Frozen due to overdue payment
An overdue payment in your account will cause the application to be frozen. Related services will be unavailable. For more information, see Overdue payments.
Related documents
To learn how to write and query data, see Use Kibana to create an index and read and write data.
Configure public or private access for a serverless application
To learn how to create indexes, read and write data, or perform visual analysis with Kibana, see Use a serverless application with Kibana.