How to Run ElasticSearch on Microsoft Azure?

Author: Anji Velagana

ElasticSearch:

ElasticSearch is an open-source search engine that works based on the Apache Lucene. It is developed in Java and it has the capability to search and index the files. The ElasticSearch was created by Shay Banon in the year 2004. Instead of searching directly, ElasticSearch searches an index (which is called as Inverted Index). Every index consists of one or more documents and each document consists of one or more fields.

Features of ElasticSearch:

  • Scalable search

  • Multi-tenancy

  • Real-Time Search

  • Data Integrity

  • Javascript Object Notation

  • Indexes JSON documents

  • Unique type-level identifiers

  • Own settings of each index

  • Lucene-based query strings

Scalable search:

The main aim of ElasticSearch is to be available always and to scale with the users’ needs. Users can add nodes to the cluster which increases the capacity and then ElasticSearch will distribute query load and data across the nodes available. ElasticSearch knows multi-node cluster balancing.

Multi-Tenancy:

ElasticSearch implements Multi-Tenancy for better-scaling properties. By using Multi-tenancy, the user doesn’t need to permit new installation in adding new tenant and he can add one tenant instantaneously. By using tenants simultaneously, the maintenance becomes easy.

Real-Time Search:

Real-time search always refers to indexing blogs and sites. The literal meaning of real-time is looking at the material published in real-time. When a blog published in a minute then it is not termed as real-time publishing.

Data Integrity:

Sometimes ElasticSearch uses alongside databases. In those situations, it is very hard to implement the two-phase commits because of transaction support lack across all the systems. Sometimes it is necessary to verify the existing data depending upon the use case. The support engineers of ElasticSearch always see the requests for the data verification. The way of data verification is quite different because of the difficulty in it.

Javascript Object Notation:

A text-based data interchange format which is used to represent the data in simple form. Javascript Object Notation also used in server-side programs, but it was originally designed based on the programming of JavaScript. JSON can be used as XML for data organizing. Mainly JSON consists of pairs of Name & Object then grouped it with a value.

Indexes JSON documents:

Javascript Object Notation is a lightweight format that is used to store and transform the data. It is very easy to understand and self-describing format. JSON users need to know about the implementations of potential security. JSON scripts execute in web pages requested by the browser. They can be helpful in injecting commands.

Unique type-level identifiers:

The purpose of unique type-level identifiers is to donate the attribute key to its source system. This helps in the primary keys of the warehouse schema. Some attributes depend on the ID column to identify the elements.

Own settings of each index:

In order to configure the indices that stores the data collection monitoring is referred to as Index templates. The retrieving of templates can be possible through API. The configure templates are one replica and one shard in design. Monitor overriding settings can cause in stopping the dashboards correctly.

Lucene-based query strings:

The query string can perform the free text search by entering the text string. The browser can search value for a specific field and can prefix the value in the field. Users cannot use the bracketed syntax while searching for a value.

Microsoft Azure:

The cloud service that is used for the organization to meet its goals in business intelligence is termed as Microsoft Azure. Initially, it was called a public cloud computing of Microsoft. Later on, it becomes Microsoft Azure. It provides various services like analyzing, cloud services and computing. The user has the choice of picking up the services to develop new scale applications. Microsoft Azure Certification is very much helpful in knowing the complete structure and behaviour of Azure.

Features of Microsoft Azure:

The following are referred to as the Microsoft Azure features:

  • Building websites

  • Migrating the applications

  • Caching

  • Virtual Network

  • Business Analytics

  • Media Services

  • Mobile Services

Building websites:

Building a website is very easy by using a technology called CMS. The configuring is somewhat difficult for the user. It is because, for running a website it includes providing string connection, setting up the FTP account and configuring the domain. In Azure, creating a website is a new feature. By using a wizard we can create a website very easily.

Migrating the applications:

The azure process of migrating the applications provides the tools and that the users can accelerate their move to the cloud. The migration process can be done in a platform called IaaS for small scale businesses. It can improve productivity and can decrease the expenditure.

Caching:

Microsoft Azure caching solutions perform an important role in building high-performance roles in web applications. Caching can avoid backend source round trips to give better scalability and performance.

Virtual Network:

Azure Virtual Network is referred to as the network representation of the cloud. It is the logical isolation to the user subscription. We can use the Azure Virtual Network (VNet) in managing Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). These Azure VNet can create a dedicated cloud for the user. Sometimes the user doesn’t require any configurations for cross-premises.

Business Analytics:

The business analytics tools of the Azure can retrieve the data from more than one business system and can combine in the repository. Most of the organizations use analytics tools with statistical functions, sophisticated data mining, statistical software packages.

Media Services:

The Media Services of Microsoft Azure is a cloud-based platform. These services can enable the developers to deliver the applications and build the management of social media. These media services are based on the APIs that enable store, upload and encode the delivery and also the mobile services of Azure can provide cloud backend for the Windows store.

Using ElasticSearch on Microsoft Azure:

The release of ElasticSearch on Azure can offer a variety of features to help in the deployment. By signing up the Elasticsearch cluster on Microsoft Azure while walking through the simple UI with a few clicks can provide an easy start experience. When the production is getting ready, then deploy the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) from the public Github repository of ElasticSearch by using the command line interface of Azure.

These kinds of features were not available for UI deployments, storage configuration, and encrypting communication to the Azure cluster through the Gateway. By deploying the ElasticSearch, the template can also be deployed and allows the visualization of the data generated with the cluster. As we know that ElasticSearch is used for analytics and RESTful search that can allow analyzing the data in real-time. It is used to store data to use in the insights.

Microsoft Azure has large regions in terms of geographical around the world. In region contains many data centres that very close to each other. The user has the choice of choosing the preferred centre. The deployment of all the nodes is done in the same region. The Elastic stack availability sets are in the own set. The Kibana instances should be in one-third of the Logstash instances. Only one can reboot at a time during the maintenance of the event. Azure can preview the concepts by supporting three zones per the region. This is the best way to deploy the Elasticsearch.

Conclusion:

Elasticsearch is referred to as a simple and complex product that uses REST APIs. This article shows the pre-configuration of ElasticSearch on Microsoft Azure including Kibana. The readers can know the features of both Elasticsearch and Azure. They can also learn how to access the cluster and create replica based on Azure. Elasticsearch on Azure is very much important to move the phase of development into deployments of production.