Disable Index

Which node is the index disabled on?

• The index can be disabled either:

  • On a single node, or
  • Cluster wide - on all database-group nodes.

• When disabling the index from the client API on a single node:
  The index will be disabled on the preferred node only, and Not on all the database-group nodes.

• When disabling an index from the Studio indexes list view:
  The index will be disabled on the local node the browser is opened on, even if it is Not the preferred node.

• When disabling the index manually:
  The index will be disabled on the preferred node only, and Not on all the database-group nodes.

What happens when the index is disabled?

• No indexing will be done by a disabled index on the node where index is disabled.
  However, new data will be indexed by the index on other database-group nodes where it is not disabled.

• You can still query the index,
  but results may be stale when querying a node on which the index was disabled.

• Disabling an index is a persistent operation:

  • The index will remain disabled even after restarting the server or after disabling/enabling the database.
  • To only pause the index and resume after a restart see: pause index operation.

Disable index - single node:

// Define the disable index operation
// Use this overload to disable on a single node
var disableIndexOp = new DisableIndexOperation("Orders/Totals");

// Execute the operation by passing it to Maintenance.Send
store.Maintenance.Send(disableIndexOp);

// At this point, the index is disabled only on the 'preferred node'
// New data will not be indexed on this node only

// Define the disable index operation
// Use this overload to disable on a single node
var disableIndexOp = new DisableIndexOperation("Orders/Totals");

// Execute the operation by passing it to Maintenance.SendAsync
await store.Maintenance.SendAsync(disableIndexOp);

// At this point, the index is disabled only on the 'preferred node'
// New data will not be indexed on this node only

Disable index - cluster wide:

// Define the disable index operation
// Pass 'true' to disable the index on all nodes in the database-group
var disableIndexOp = new DisableIndexOperation("Orders/Totals", true);

// Execute the operation by passing it to Maintenance.Send
store.Maintenance.Send(disableIndexOp);

// At this point, the index is disabled on ALL nodes
// New data will not be indexed

// Define the disable index operation
// Pass 'true' to disable the index on all nodes in the database-group
var disableIndexOp = new DisableIndexOperation("Orders/Totals", true);

// Execute the operation by passing it to Maintenance.SendAsync
await store.Maintenance.SendAsync(disableIndexOp);

// At this point, the index is disabled on ALL nodes
// New data will not be indexed

Syntax:

// Available overloads:
public DisableIndexOperation(string indexName)
public DisableIndexOperation(string indexName, bool clusterWide)

• It may sometimes be useful to disable an index manually, through the file system.
  For example, a faulty index may load before DisableIndexOperation gets a chance to disable it.
  Manually disabling the index will ensure that the index is not loaded.

• To manually disable an index:

  • Place a file named disable.marker in the index directory.
    Indexes are kept under the database directory, each index in a directory whose name is similar to the index's.
  • The disable.marker file can be empty,
    and can be created by any available method, e.g. using the File Explorer, a terminal, or code.

• Attempting to use a manually disabled index will generate the following exception:

     Unable to open index: '{IndexName}', 
     it has been manually disabled via the file: '{disableMarkerPath}.  
     To re-enable, remove the disable.marker file and enable indexing.`
  

• To enable a manually disabled index:

  • First, remove the disable.marker file from the index directory.
  • Then, enable the index by any of the options described in: How to enable an index.