Advanced search migration style guide

Create a new advanced search migration

NOTE: This functionality is only supported for indices created in GitLab 13.0 and later.

With a script

Introduced in GitLab 16.3.

Execute scripts/elastic-migration and follow the prompts to create:

A migration file to define the migration: ee/elastic/migrate/YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_migration_name.rb
A spec file to test the migration: ee/spec/elastic/migrate/YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_migration_name_spec.rb
A dictionary file to identify the migration: ee/elastic/docs/YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_migration_name.yml

Manually

Introduced in GitLab 13.6.

In the ee/elastic/migrate/ folder, create a new file with the filename format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_migration_name.rb. This format is the same for Rails database migrations.

# frozen_string_literal: true

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  # Important: Any updates to the Elastic index mappings must be replicated in the respective
  # configuration files:
  #   - `Elastic::Latest::Config`, for the main index.
  #   - `Elastic::Latest::<Type>Config`, for standalone indices.

  def migrate
  end

  # Check if the migration has completed
  # Return true if completed, otherwise return false
  def completed?
  end
end

Applied migrations are stored in gitlab-#{RAILS_ENV}-migrations index. All migrations not executed are applied by the Elastic::MigrationWorker cron worker sequentially.

To update Elastic index mappings, apply the configuration to the respective files:

For the main index: Elastic::Latest::Config.
For standalone indices: Elastic::Latest::<Type>Config.

Migrations can be built with a retry limit and have the ability to be failed and marked as halted. Any data or index cleanup needed to support migration retries should be handled in the migration.

Migration helpers

The following migration helpers are available in ee/app/workers/concerns/elastic/:

`Elastic::MigrationBackfillHelper`

Backfills a specific field in an index. In most cases, the mapping for the field should already be added.

Requires the field_name method and DOCUMENT_TYPE constant to backfill a single field.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationBackfillHelper

  DOCUMENT_TYPE = Issue

  private

  def field_name
    :schema_version
  end
end

Requires the field_names method and DOCUMENT_TYPE constant to backfill multiple fields if any field is null.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationBackfillHelper

  DOCUMENT_TYPE = Issue

  private

  def field_names
    %w[schema_version visibility_level]
  end
end

`Elastic::MigrationUpdateMappingsHelper`

Updates a mapping in an index by calling put_mapping with the mapping specified.

Requires the new_mappings method and DOCUMENT_TYPE constant.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationUpdateMappingsHelper

  DOCUMENT_TYPE = Issue

  private

  def new_mappings
    {
      schema_version: {
        type: 'short'
      }
    }
  end
end

`Elastic::MigrationRemoveFieldsHelper`

Removes specified fields from an index.

Requires the index_name, document_type methods. If there is one field to remove, add the field_to_remove method, otherwise add fields_to_remove with an array of fields.

Checks in batches if any documents that match document_type have the fields specified in Elasticsearch. If documents exist, uses a Painless script to perform update_by_query.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationRemoveFieldsHelper

  batched!
  throttle_delay 1.minute

  private

  def index_name
    User.__elasticsearch__.index_name
  end

  def document_type
    'user'
  end

  def fields_to_remove
    %w[two_factor_enabled has_projects]
  end
end

The default batch size is 10_000. You can override this value by specifying BATCH_SIZE:

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationRemoveFieldsHelper

  batched!
  BATCH_SIZE = 100

  ...
end

`Elastic::MigrationObsolete`

Marks a migration as obsolete when it's no longer required.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationObsolete
end

`Elastic::MigrationCreateIndex`

Creates a new index.

Requires:

The target_class and document_type methods
Mappings and index settings for the class in ee/lib/elastic/latest/ and ee/lib/elastic/v12p1/

WARNING: You must perform a follow-up migration to populate the index in the same milestone.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationCreateIndex

  retry_on_failure

  def document_type
    :epic
  end

  def target_class
    Epic
  end
end

`Search::Elastic::MigrationReindexBasedOnSchemaVersion`

Reindexes all documents in the index that stores the specified document type and updates schema_version.

Requires the DOCUMENT_TYPE and NEW_SCHEMA_VERSION constants. The index mapping must have a schema_version integer field in a YYMM format.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Search::Elastic::MigrationReindexBasedOnSchemaVersion

  batched!
  batch_size 9_000
  throttle_delay 1.minute

  DOCUMENT_TYPE = WorkItem
  NEW_SCHEMA_VERSION = 23_08
  UPDATE_BATCH_SIZE = 100
end

`Search::Elastic::MigrationDeleteBasedOnSchemaVersion`

Deletes all documents in the index that stores the specified document type and has schema_version less than the given value.

Requires the DOCUMENT_TYPE constant and schema_version method. The index mapping must have a schema_version integer field in a YYMM format.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include ::Search::Elastic::MigrationDeleteBasedOnSchemaVersion

  DOCUMENT_TYPE = Issue

  batch_size 10_000
  batched!
  throttle_delay 1.minute
  retry_on_failure

  def schema_version
    23_12
  end
end

`Search::Elastic::MigrationDatabaseBackfillHelper`

Reindexes all documents in the database to the elastic search index respecting the limited_indexing setting.

Requires the DOCUMENT_TYPE constant and respect_limited_indexing? method.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include ::Search::Elastic::MigrationDatabaseBackfillHelper

  batch_size 10_000
  batched!
  throttle_delay 1.minute
  retry_on_failure

  DOCUMENT_TYPE = Issue

  def respect_limited_indexing?
    true
  end
end

`Elastic::MigrationHelper`

Contains methods you can use when a migration doesn't fit the previous examples.

class MigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  include Elastic::MigrationHelper

  def migrate
  ...
  end

  def completed?
  ...
  end
end

Migration options supported by the `Elastic::MigrationWorker`

Elastic::MigrationWorker supports the following migration options:

batched! - Allow the migration to run in batches. If set, Elastic::MigrationWorker re-enqueues itself with a delay which is set using the throttle_delay option described below. The batching must be handled in the migrate method. This setting controls the re-enqueuing only.
batch_size - Sets the number of documents modified during a batched! migration run. This size should be set to a value which allows the updates enough time to finish. This can be tuned in combination with the throttle_delay option described below. The batching must be handled in a custom migrate method or by using the Elastic::MigrationBackfillHelper migrate method which uses this setting. Default value is 1000 documents.
throttle_delay - Sets the wait time in between batch runs. This time should be set high enough to allow each migration batch enough time to finish. Additionally, the time should be less than 5 minutes because that is how often the Elastic::MigrationWorker cron worker runs. The default value is 3 minutes.
pause_indexing! - Pause indexing while the migration runs. This setting records the indexing setting before the migration runs and set it back to that value when the migration is completed.
space_requirements! - Verify that enough free space is available in the cluster when the migration runs. This setting halts the migration if the storage required is not available when the migration runs. The migration must provide the space required in bytes by defining a space_required_bytes method.
retry_on_failure - Enable the retry on failure feature. By default, it retries the migration 30 times. After it runs out of retries, the migration is marked as halted. To customize the number of retries, pass the max_attempts argument: retry_on_failure max_attempts: 10

# frozen_string_literal: true

class BatchedMigrationName < Elastic::Migration
  # Declares a migration should be run in batches
  batched!
  throttle_delay 10.minutes
  pause_indexing!
  space_requirements!
  retry_on_failure

  # ...
end

Avoiding downtime in migrations

Reverting a migration

If a migration fails or is halted on GitLab.com, we prefer to revert the change that introduced the migration. This prevents self-managed customers from receiving a broken migration and reduces the need for backports.

When to merge

We prefer not to merge migrations within 1 week of the release. This allows time for a revert if a migration fails or doesn't work as expected. Migrations still in development or review during the final week of the release should be pushed to the next milestone.

Multi-version compatibility

Advanced search migrations, like any other GitLab changes, need to support the case where multiple versions of the application are running at the same time.

Depending on the order of deployment, it's possible that the migration has started or finished and there's still a server running the application code from before the migration. We need to take this into consideration until we can ensure all advanced search migrations start after the deployment has finished.

High risk migrations

Because Elasticsearch does not support transactions, we always need to design our migrations to accommodate a situation where the application code is reverted after the migration has started or after it is finished.

For this reason we generally defer destructive actions (for example, deletions after some data is moved) to a later merge request after the migrations have completed successfully. To be safe, for self-managed customers we should also defer it to another release if there is risk of important data loss.

Calculating migration runtime

It's important to understand how long a migration might take to run on GitLab.com. Derive the number of documents that will be processed by the migration. This number may come from querying the database or an existing Elasticsearch index. Use the following formula to calculate the runtime:

> batch_size = 9_000
=> 9000
> throttle_delay = 1.minute
=> 1 minute
> number_of_documents = 15_536_906
=> 15536906
> (number_of_documents / batch_size) * throttle_delay
=> 1726 minutes
> (number_of_documents / batch_size) * throttle_delay / 1.hour
=> 28

Best practices for advanced search migrations

Follow these best practices for best results:

Order all migrations for each document type so that any migrations that use Elastic::MigrationUpdateMappingsHelper are executed before migrations that use the Elastic::MigrationBackfillHelper. This avoids reindexing the same documents multiple times if all of the migrations are unapplied and reduces the backfill time.
When working in batches, keep the batch size under 9,000 documents. The bulk indexer is set to run every minute and process a batch of 10,000 documents. This way, the bulk indexer has time to process records before another migration batch is attempted.
To ensure that document counts are up to date, you should refresh the index before checking if a migration is completed.
Add logging statements to each migration when the migration starts, when a completion check occurs, and when the migration is completed. These logs are helpful when debugging issues with migrations.
Pause indexing if you're using any Elasticsearch Reindex API operations.
Consider adding a retry limit if there is potential for the migration to fail. This ensures that migrations can be halted if an issue occurs.

Deleting advanced search migrations in a major version upgrade

Because our advanced search migrations usually require us to support multiple code paths for a long period of time, it's important to clean those up when we safely can.

We choose to use GitLab major version upgrades as a safe time to remove backwards compatibility for indices that have not been fully migrated. We document this in our upgrade documentation. We also choose to replace the migration code with the halted migration and remove tests so that:

We don't need to maintain any code that is called from our advanced search migrations.
We don't waste CI time running tests for migrations that we don't support anymore.
Operators who have not run this migration and who upgrade directly to the target version see a message prompting them to reindex from scratch.

To be extra safe, we do not delete migrations that were created in the last minor version before the major upgrade. So, if we are upgrading to %14.0, we should not delete migrations that were only added in %13.12. This extra safety net allows for migrations that might take multiple weeks to finish on GitLab.com. It would be bad if we upgraded GitLab.com to %14.0 before the migrations in %13.12 were finished. Because our deployments to GitLab.com are automated and we don't have automated checks to prevent this, the extra precaution is warranted. Additionally, even if we did have automated checks to prevent it, we wouldn't actually want to hold up GitLab.com deployments on advanced search migrations, as they may still have another week to go, and that's too long to block deployments.

Process for marking migrations as obsolete

For every migration that was created 2 minor versions before the major version being upgraded to, we do the following:

Confirm the migration has actually completed successfully for GitLab.com.
Replace the content of the migration with:
```
include Elastic::MigrationObsolete
```
Delete any spec files to support this migration.
Verify that there are no references of the migration in the .rubocop_todo/ directory.
Remove any logic handling backwards compatibility for this migration. You can find this by looking for Elastic::DataMigrationService.migration_has_finished?(:migration_name_in_lowercase).
Create a merge request with these changes. Noting that we should not accidentally merge this before the major release is started.

Process for removing migrations

Select migrations that were marked as obsolete before the current major release
If the step above includes all obsolete migrations, keep one last migration as a safeguard for customers with unapplied migrations
Delete migration files and spec files for those migrations
Verify that there are no references of the migrations in the .rubocop_todo/ directory.
Create a merge request and assign it to a team member from the global search team.