Using the task management API

Elasticsearch 5.x and later versions allow you to define the actions that are executed to the server side. These actions can take some time to complete and they can use huge cluster resources. The most common ones are as follows:

• delete_by_query
• update_by_query
• reindex

When these actions are called, they create a server-side task that executes the job; the task management API allows you to control these jobs.

Getting ready

You will need an up-and-running Elasticsearch installation – similar to the one that we described in the Downloading and installing Elasticsearch recipe in Chapter 1, Getting Started.

In order to execute the commands, any HTTP client can be used, such...