AOSPERF05-BP02 Enable a dedicated coordinator node for OpenSearch Service domain - Amazon OpenSearch Service Lens
Implementation guidance

AOSPERF05-BP02 Enable a dedicated coordinator node for OpenSearch Service domain

Improve resource utilization and resilience by enabling a dedicated coordinator node, reducing private IP address reservations

Level of risk exposed if this best practice is not established: High

Desired outcome: You use a dedicated coordinator node for an OpenSearch Service domain to improve resource utilization, enhance resilience, and reduce private IP address reservations.

Benefits of establishing this best practice:

  • Improve resource utilization: Enabling a dedicated coordinator node in your OpenSearch Service domain can improve resource utilization by relieving data nodes from coordination responsibilities, allowing them to focus on core tasks like search, data storage, and indexing.

  • Enhance domain resiliency: With a dedicated coordinator node, you can also enhance the resiliency of your OpenSearch Service domain by reducing the risk of resource (memory and CPU) strain on data nodes that are hosting OpenSearch Dashboards.

  • Reduce private IP addresses reservation: Provisioning a dedicated coordinator node can help reduce the reservation of private IP addresses required for virtual private cloud (VPC) domains, making it easier to manage your domain's resources.

Implementation guidance

The following are general guidelines that apply to many use cases. Each workload is unique, with unique characteristics, so no generic recommendation is exactly right for every use case.

  • General-purpose instances are enough for most of the use cases.

  • Keep the instance family the same for a dedicated coordinating node and data node.

  • It is recommended to provision 5% to 10% of your domain's total data nodes as dedicated coordinator nodes. For example, if your domain has 90 R6g.large data nodes, you can plan for coordinator nodes to make up anywhere between 5 and 9 of the R6g.large instance type.

  • As a starting point, the instance size of your dedicated coordinator nodes should be the same as your domain's data nodes. However, in certain cases, it may be advisable to use a smaller instance type with a higher count to ensure availability. For example, if you have R6g.8xlarge as the instance size for a data node, you can try 3 instances of R6g.2xlarge size instead of one R6g.8xlarge size to achieve better availability.

  • Source domains typically do not perform coordination tasks. If you are using cross region search, it is recommended you provision a dedicated coordinator node on the destination domains.

Implementation steps

  • Log in to the AWS Management Console.

  • Navigate to the Amazon OpenSearch Service console.

  • Create a new domain or modify an existing domain:

    • For a new domain, choose Create domain. For an existing domain, select the domain name and choose Actions, then Edit cluster configuration..

  • Enable dedicated coordinator nodes:

    • In the Cluster configuration section, under Dedicated coordinator nodes, toggle on the option to enable dedicated coordinator nodes.

  • Choose coordinator node instance type and count. Follow the recommendations mentioned in the implementation guidance for this best practice.

  • After configuring the settings, review your setup and choose Create (for a new domain) or Save changes (for an existing domain).