This version of GitHub Enterprise will be discontinued on This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2020-01-22. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Migrating Elasticsearch indices to GitHub Enterprise Server 2.14 or later

To prepare for an upgrade to GitHub Enterprise Server 2.14, you'll need to migrate your indices to Elasticsearch 5.6 with our migration script.

In this article

GitHub Enterprise Server 2.14 includes an upgrade to Elasticsearch 5.6. Before upgrading to GitHub Enterprise Server 2.14 or later from 2.12 or 2.13, we recommend you download, install, and run the Elasticsearch migration tools, so your largest indices are migrated online while your appliance still has online access.

Search indices

The migration script checks for any search indices first while the appliance is online. Migrating search indices can take a few minutes to a few days, depending on their size. For an example of large indices, these indices took a couple of days to migrate in our test environment.

admin@ip-172-31-2-141:~$ curl -s http://localhost:9200/_cat/indices?v | sort -n -k 6
green  open   blog-1                     1   0          0            0       144b           144b
green  open   projects-1                 1   0          0            0       144b           144b
green  open   registry-packages-1        1   0          0            0       144b           144b
green  open   showcases-1                1   0          0            0       144b           144b
health status index                    pri rep docs.count docs.deleted store.size pri.store.size
green  open   pull-requests-1            1   0          1            0      9.3kb          9.3kb
green  open   wikis-1                    1   0          2            0        5kb            5kb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-05-29   5   0         25            0    124.2kb        124.2kb
green  open   repos-1                    1   0       1638            1      1.4mb          1.4mb
green  open   gists-1                    1   0       3531           64    291.9kb        291.9kb
green  open   audit_log-1-2018-06-1      1   0      11108            0        3mb            3mb
green  open   users-1                    1   0      19866           56      2.7mb          2.7mb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-05-31   5   0      20000            0     33.4mb         33.4mb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-06-04   5   0      20000            0     32.6mb         32.6mb
green  open   issues-1                   1   0      26405            6     82.8mb         82.8mb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-05-30   5   0     119744            0    196.8mb        196.8mb
green  open   audit_log-1-2018-05-1      1   0     191664            0       50mb           50mb
green  open   code-search-1              1   0    6932626           44     42.9gb         42.9gb
green  open   commits-1                  1   0   63753587         1485     45.4gb         45.4gb

The search indices start with:

  • blog-
  • code-search-
  • commits-
  • gists-
  • issues-
  • labels-
  • marketplace-listings-
  • non-marketplace-listings-
  • projects-
  • pull-requests-
  • registry-packages-
  • repos-
  • showcases-
  • topics-
  • users-

Webhook indices

After the migration script rebuilds the necessary search indices online, the script will check if any webhook indices need to be rebuilt. If you've run your appliance with GitHub Enterprise Server 2.12 or 2.13 for 14 days or longer, then you likely will not need your webhook indices rebuilt since webhook indices have a default retention policy of seven days. If you're updating your appliance from GitHub Enterprise 2.11 or earlier, then you may need to rebuild the webhook indices.

If any webhook indices need to be rebuilt, then you'll be prompted to enable maintenance mode before the script can rebuild the webhook indices. Although migrating webhook indices requires some downtime, large maintenance windows or downtime is not necessary.

The webhook indices start with hookshot-logs-.

Available indices

You can see available indices on your appliance using curl.

admin@ip-172-31-2-141:~$ curl -s http://localhost:9200/_cat/indices?v | sort -n -k 6
green  open   blog-1                     1   0          0            0       144b           144b
green  open   projects-1                 1   0          0            0       144b           144b
green  open   registry-packages-1        1   0          0            0       144b           144b
green  open   showcases-1                1   0          0            0       144b           144b
health status index                    pri rep docs.count docs.deleted store.size pri.store.size
green  open   pull-requests-1            1   0          1            0      9.3kb          9.3kb
green  open   wikis-1                    1   0          2            0        5kb            5kb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-05-29   5   0         25            0    124.2kb        124.2kb
green  open   repos-1                    1   0       1638            1      1.4mb          1.4mb
green  open   gists-1                    1   0       3531           64    291.9kb        291.9kb
green  open   audit_log-1-2018-06-1      1   0      11108            0        3mb            3mb
green  open   users-1                    1   0      19866           56      2.7mb          2.7mb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-05-31   5   0      20000            0     33.4mb         33.4mb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-06-04   5   0      20000            0     32.6mb         32.6mb
green  open   issues-1                   1   0      26405            6     82.8mb         82.8mb
green  open   hookshot-logs-2018-05-30   5   0     119744            0    196.8mb        196.8mb
green  open   audit_log-1-2018-05-1      1   0     191664            0       50mb           50mb
green  open   code-search-1              1   0    6932626           44     42.9gb         42.9gb
green  open   commits-1                  1   0   63753587         1485     45.4gb         45.4gb

Preparing a GitHub Enterprise Server 2.12 or 2.13 appliance

If you upgrade to GitHub Enterprise Server 2.14 or later without running the migration tools, the existing Elasticsearch indices may be invalid and won't work correctly. To run the Elasticsearch migration script, your GitHub Enterprise Server appliance must be running GitHub Enterprise 2.12 or 2.13.

Warning:

  • Using GitHub Enterprise Server Backup Utilities will destroy old Elasticsearch indices not compatible with 5.X after restoring. In this case, manual reindexing could be necessary.
  • If GitHub Enterprise Server is configured for High Availability, the migration script must run while replication is still running. The changes must be allowed to fully replicate to the other appliance before starting the upgrade. If replication is not running while the migration script runs, your Elasticsearch indexes may become invalid.
  1. Authenticate to the primary appliance with High Availability enabled using SSH.

  2. Download and install the migration script to the appliance:

    $ wget https://github-enterprise.s3.amazonaws.com/util/es-5x-transition-tools.tar.gz
    $ sudo tar -C / -xvf es-5x-transition-tools.tar.gz

    If you manage a GitHub Enterprise Server Cluster, authenticate to one of the Elasticsearch server nodes using SSH and install the migration tools there. Locate them using:

    $ ghe-cluster-each -r elasticsearch -p
     ghe-test-data-0
     ghe-test-data-1
     ghe-test-data-2
  3. Run the migration script:

    $ /usr/local/share/enterprise/ghe-es-5x-migration -r

    Note: If you have webhook indices to migrate, after running the online migrations, you'll be prompted to enable maintenance mode.

  4. If you’re running a GitHub Enterprise Server Cluster, follow the official upgrade documentation for single VMs or High Availability environments or the cluster upgrade guide. For more information, see "Upgrading GitHub Enterprise Server" or "Upgrading a cluster".

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