New to KubeDB? Please start here.
Vertical Scale Elasticsearch Combined Cluster
This guide will show you how to use KubeDB Ops-manager operator to update the resources of a Elasticsearch combined cluster.
Before You Begin
At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the
kubectlcommand-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.Install
KubeDBProvisioner and Ops-manager operator in your cluster following the steps here.You should be familiar with the following
KubeDBconcepts:
To keep everything isolated, we are going to use a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/examples/elasticsearch directory of kubedb/docs repository.
Apply Vertical Scaling on Combined Cluster
Here, we are going to deploy a Elasticsearch combined cluster using a supported version by KubeDB operator. Then we are going to apply vertical scaling on it.
Prepare Elasticsearch Combined Cluster
Now, we are going to deploy a Elasticsearch combined cluster database with version xpack-8.11.1.
Deploy Elasticsearch Combined Cluster
In this section, we are going to deploy a Elasticsearch combined cluster. Then, in the next section we will update the resources of the database using ElasticsearchOpsRequest CRD. Below is the YAML of the Elasticsearch CR that we are going to create,
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: Elasticsearch
metadata:
name: es-combined
namespace: demo
spec:
version: xpack-8.11.1
enableSSL: true
replicas: 1
storageType: Durable
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
deletionPolicy: WipeOut
Let’s create the Elasticsearch CR we have shown above,
$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.10.17/docs/examples/elasticsearch/clustering/multi-node-es.yaml
Elasticsearch.kubedb.com/es-combined created
Now, wait until es-combined has status Ready. i.e,
$ kubectl get elasticsearch -n demo -w
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
es-combined xpack-8.11.1 Ready 3h17m
Let’s check the Pod containers resources,
$ kubectl get pod -n demo es-combined-0 -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].resources'
{
"limits": {
"memory": "1536Mi"
},
"requests": {
"cpu": "500m",
"memory": "1536Mi"
}
}
This is the default resources of the Elasticsearch combined cluster set by the KubeDB operator.
We are now ready to apply the ElasticsearchOpsRequest CR to update the resources of this database.
Vertical Scaling
Here, we are going to update the resources of the combined cluster to meet the desired resources after scaling.
Create ElasticsearchOpsRequest
In order to update the resources of the database, we have to create a ElasticsearchOpsRequest CR with our desired resources. Below is the YAML of the ElasticsearchOpsRequest CR that we are going to create,
apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: ElasticsearchOpsRequest
metadata:
name: vscale-combined
namespace: demo
spec:
type: VerticalScaling
databaseRef:
name: es-combined
verticalScaling:
node:
resources:
limits:
cpu: 1500m
memory: 2Gi
requests:
cpu: 600m
memory: 2Gi
Here,
spec.databaseRef.namespecifies that we are performing vertical scaling operation ones-combinedcluster.spec.typespecifies that we are performingVerticalScalingon Elasticsearch.spec.VerticalScaling.nodespecifies the desired resources after scaling.
Let’s create the ElasticsearchOpsRequest CR we have shown above,
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.10.17/docs/examples/elasticsearch/clustering/topology-es.yaml
Verify Elasticsearch Combined cluster resources updated successfully
If everything goes well, KubeDB Ops-manager operator will update the resources of Elasticsearch object and related PetSets and Pods.
Let’s wait for ElasticsearchOpsRequest to be Successful. Run the following command to watch ElasticsearchOpsRequest CR,
$ kubectl get elasticsearchopsrequest -n demo
NAME TYPE STATUS AGE
vscale-combined VerticalScaling Successful 2m38s
We can see from the above output that the ElasticsearchOpsRequest has succeeded. If we describe the ElasticsearchOpsRequest we will get an overview of the steps that were followed to scale the cluster.
$ kubectl describe Elasticsearchopsrequest -n demo vscale-combined
Name: vscale-combined
Namespace: demo
Labels: <none>
Annotations: <none>
API Version: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
Kind: ElasticsearchOpsRequest
Metadata:
Creation Timestamp: 2025-11-19T08:55:15Z
Generation: 1
Resource Version: 66012
UID: bb814c10-12af-438e-9553-5565120bbdb9
Spec:
Apply: IfReady
Database Ref:
Name: es-combined
Type: VerticalScaling
Vertical Scaling:
Node:
Resources:
Limits:
Cpu: 1500m
Memory: 2Gi
Requests:
Cpu: 600m
Memory: 2Gi
Status:
Conditions:
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:15Z
Message: Elasticsearch ops request is vertically scaling the nodes
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: VerticalScale
Status: True
Type: VerticalScale
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:27Z
Message: successfully reconciled the Elasticsearch resources
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: UpdatePetSets
Status: True
Type: UpdatePetSets
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:32Z
Message: pod exists; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: PodExists--es-combined-0
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:32Z
Message: create es client; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: CreateEsClient--es-combined-0
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:32Z
Message: disable shard allocation; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: DisableShardAllocation--es-combined-0
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:32Z
Message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: EvictPod--es-combined-0
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:57Z
Message: create es client; ConditionStatus:True
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: CreateEsClient
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:55:57Z
Message: re enable shard allocation; ConditionStatus:True
Observed Generation: 1
Status: True
Type: ReEnableShardAllocation
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:56:02Z
Message: Successfully restarted all nodes
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: RestartNodes
Status: True
Type: RestartNodes
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:56:07Z
Message: successfully updated Elasticsearch CR
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: UpdateDatabase
Status: True
Type: UpdateDatabase
Last Transition Time: 2025-11-19T08:56:07Z
Message: Successfully completed the modification process.
Observed Generation: 1
Reason: Successful
Status: True
Type: Successful
Observed Generation: 1
Phase: Successful
Events:
Type Reason Age From Message
---- ------ ---- ---- -------
Normal PauseDatabase 2m6s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Pausing Elasticsearch demo/es-combined
Normal UpdatePetSets 114s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator successfully reconciled the Elasticsearch resources
Warning pod exists; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0 109s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator pod exists; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Warning create es client; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0 109s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator create es client; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Warning disable shard allocation; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0 109s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator disable shard allocation; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Warning evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0 109s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:es-combined-0
Warning create es client; ConditionStatus:False 104s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator create es client; ConditionStatus:False
Warning create es client; ConditionStatus:True 84s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator create es client; ConditionStatus:True
Warning re enable shard allocation; ConditionStatus:True 84s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator re enable shard allocation; ConditionStatus:True
Normal RestartNodes 79s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Successfully restarted all nodes
Normal UpdateDatabase 74s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator successfully updated Elasticsearch CR
Normal ResumeDatabase 74s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Resuming Elasticsearch demo/es-combined
Normal ResumeDatabase 74s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Successfully resumed Elasticsearch demo/es-combined
Normal Successful 74s KubeDB Ops-manager Operator Successfully Updated Database
Now, we are going to verify from one of the Pod yaml whether the resources of the combined cluster has updated to meet up the desired state, Let’s check,
$ kubectl get pod -n demo es-combined-0 -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].resources'
{
"limits": {
"cpu": "1500m",
"memory": "2Gi"
},
"requests": {
"cpu": "600m",
"memory": "2Gi"
}
}
The above output verifies that we have successfully scaled up the resources of the Elasticsearch combined cluster.
Cleaning Up
To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:
kubectl delete mg -n demo es-combined
kubectl delete Elasticsearchopsrequest -n demo vscale-combined
kubectl delete ns demo
Next Steps
- Detail concepts of Elasticsearch object.
- Different Elasticsearch topology clustering modes here.
- Monitor your Elasticsearch database with KubeDB using out-of-the-box Prometheus operator.
- Want to hack on KubeDB? Check our contribution guidelines.