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OpenSearch

What is OpenSearch?​

OpenSearch is the Apache-2.0 open-source fork of Elasticsearch, created and maintained by AWS after Elastic changed Elasticsearch's license. It provides the same search-and-analytics engine feature set with a REST API that's largely compatible with Elasticsearch clients. Laradock runs it as a single-node container with the security plugin disabled for local development.

Start OpenSearch​

docker compose up -d opensearch

Stop OpenSearch​

docker compose stop opensearch

This stops the container without deleting its data (kept under DATA_PATH_HOST/opensearch). To remove the container: docker compose rm -f opensearch.

Configuration​

All settings live in opensearch/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env:

VariableDefaultWhat it does
OPENSEARCH_VERSION2Image tag from the opensearchproject/opensearch Docker Hub image.
OPENSEARCH_HOST_PORT9202Host-side port for the REST API (container port 9200).
OPENSEARCH_MONITORING_PORT9600Host-side port for the monitoring/performance-analyzer endpoint (container port 9600).

opensearch/compose.yml also runs it single-node (discovery.type=single-node), with DISABLE_SECURITY_PLUGIN=true and JVM heap capped at -Xms512m -Xmx512m via OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS.

Connect​

curl http://localhost:9202

That returns the cluster/version info if it's up. From another container (e.g. workspace), use http://opensearch:9200, note the container listens on 9200 internally regardless of the host-side OPENSEARCH_HOST_PORT mapping.

Common issues​

  • Port clash with elasticsearch. If you're running both search engines side by side, OPENSEARCH_HOST_PORT (9202) is intentionally different from Elasticsearch's 9200 so they don't collide.
  • Container exits or fails to start. Like Elasticsearch, OpenSearch needs vm.max_map_count >= 262144 on the Docker host (sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144 on Linux).
  • Security plugin is off. DISABLE_SECURITY_PLUGIN=true means no authentication on the REST API by default, fine for local dev, not something to carry into production.
  • App can't connect but the container is running. Use the container name opensearch, not localhost, from inside another container.

Looking for the original Elasticsearch instead? See Elasticsearch. New to Laradock? Start with Getting Started.