OpenSearch for Jira Data Center
This page explains the differences between OpenSearch and Lucene search platforms. By default, Jira uses Lucene. You can use OpenSearch starting from Jira 11.2
By using OpenSearch instead of Lucene, you’ll be able to speed up you Jira, reduce the number of required Jira nodes and use cheaper hardware. Discover our hardware recommendations for OpenSearch
As your Jira instance grows, you need search that keeps up with your team’s pace. That’s why Jira Data Center now offers OpenSearch as an opt-in alternative to the default Lucene search engine. OpenSearch is designed to scale with your organization, using multi-node instances to handle even the most process-intensive indexing. Your users will enjoy the same familiar search experience — just faster and more reliable, no matter how large your instance becomes.
On this page:
- What is OpenSearch?
- Differences between OpenSearch and Lucene
- Performance test results
- Ready to make the switch?
OpenSearch in Jira
OpenSearch in Jira isn’t just about searching — it supports everything you do, from loading boards and viewing backlogs to generating reports and working with issues. Because so many core actions rely on search, OpenSearch’s speed, consistency, and reliability have a direct impact on your team’s productivity and experience.
What is OpenSearch?
OpenSearch is an open-source, distributed search and analytics suite. It began as a community-driven fork of Elasticsearch 7.10, created by Amazon Web Services (AWS) after Elastic changed its licensing model. OpenSearch offers advanced search features and real-time analytics.
With OpenSearch, you can:
Improve performance of your instance. Discover results of the performance tests
Scale confidently, handling growing data volumes and user loads with a distributed architecture
Simplify index management and lower overall Jira resource consumption.
Keep search running without interruption on clustered OpenSearch instances, even during reindexing.
Quickly find the content you need with full-text search capabilities.
Gain real-time insights into your data and search patterns.
Customize and extend search functionality using plugins and APIs.
Keep your data safe and stay informed with built-in security, alerting, and monitoring.
Differences between OpenSearch and Lucene
OpenSearch gives your Jira instance operational benefits and improved search and analytics capabilities.
OpenSearch | Lucene | |
|---|---|---|
Operational differences | ||
Startup for new nodes | All nodes connect to a single, up-to-date instance, so new nodes start up quickly and are immediately ready to serve search requests. | When a new node joins a Lucene cluster, it must copy or rebuild the entire search index and replay recent changes. |
Search results | All changes are available to every node, reducing the risk of outdated or inconsistent search results. Updates are shared across the cluster after a short refresh interval (defaults to one second), minimizing the need for full site reindexes. | When a node in the cluster makes a change to a Lucene document, that change is firstly made to the local index, then propagated to the other nodes within the cluster. This means higher risk of outdated results and more overhead when scaling or adding nodes. |
Index scalability | All nodes connect to a dedicated OpenSearch cluster, so you can scale your search index independently from your Jira cluster. This means you can use smaller, more cost-effective Jira nodes, while scaling your search infrastructure as needed. | Every node must store a full copy of the index, requiring significant disk space and memory. |
Search and analytics differences | ||
Built-in search capabilities | Distributed architecture ensures that your search remains fast and reliable. You can extend its functionality with plugins and modules. | No built-in plugin or module system for extensibility. You can extend it by writing custom Java code. |
Trace analytics | You can monitor search indexes independently from their applications. Trace Analytics provides detailed analysis and visualization of distributed trace data, helping you identify bottlenecks and optimize performance. This is valuable for debugging and optimizing microservices architectures. | No built-in trace analytics or distributed trace visualization. |
Index management | OpenSearch automates index handling with policies for deletion. This enables smarter resource utilization and effective data lifecycle management, simplifying administrative tasks and keeping your search environment organized. | Index management is manual, you must handle deletion and cleanup yourself. No built-in monitoring or policy-driven automation for index lifecycle, making it more labor-intensive and error-prone as data grows. |
Performance test results
OpenSearch boosts overall Jira performance and reliability. Our internal testing shows that OpenSearch can significantly improve scale-related performance issues, especially as your instance grows.
Our benchmarking results show that OpenSearch delivers a 38% improvement in overall performance compared to a Lucene-based instance, based on the 95th percentile (P95) of response times. This means that 95% of all measured response times are faster than this value, so it’s a good indicator of how the system performs under heavy load.
Test details: We benchmarked a 14 GB Lucene index on an internal 5-node Jira Data Center instance, comparing Lucene and OpenSearch. The test workload consisted of approximately 25% write operations and 75% search operations (including JQL searches, board, backlog, and issue views), with 210 concurrent virtual users. We ran the same tests on two separate instances—one using Lucene and the other using OpenSearch. More on OpenSearch hardware recommendations for Jira
Response times
Our benchmarking results show that the OpenSearch response time is approximately 38% faster than Lucene. This performance gap widens as your dataset grows.
Metric | Lucene | OpenSearch |
|---|---|---|
P95 Response time (lower is better) | 813 ms | 500 ms |
P90 Response time (lower is better) | 472 ms | 348 ms |
Error Rate | 0% | 0% |
Full reindexing performance
We manually triggered a full reindex and found that OpenSearch completed the process faster than Lucene. However, the real benefit of OpenSearch is that you don’t need to reindex as often. Because updates are quickly shared across all nodes (by default, every second), OpenSearch keeps your data consistent and reduces the need for full site reindexes.
Search platform | Duration (lower is better) |
|---|---|
Lucene | 102 minutes |
OpenSearch | 47 minutes |
Jira node resource usage
Our internal benchmarks show that OpenSearch reduces memory consumption and garbage collection overhead and also significantly lowers thread contention and eliminates I/O anomalies seen with Lucene.
OpenSearch enables you to achieve the same level of performance with fewer Jira nodes. For example, while a Lucene-based cluster typically requires five nodes to maintain optimal performance, OpenSearch can deliver similar results with just three nodes. This means you can scale down your Jira cluster, reduce infrastructure costs, and still provide a fast, reliable search experience for your users.
Metric | Lucene (5 nodes) | OpenSearch (3 nodes) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
CPU usage (peak) | 72.6% | 50% | OpenSearch uses around 31% less CPU. |
Memory usage (peak) | 8.87 GB | 4.42 GB | OpenSearch uses significantly less memory. |
Garbage collection |
|
| OpenSearch ensures fewer events and shorter pauses. |
Socket input/output anomalies (unexpected, prolonged delays in network data read operations) | 4.17 s reading 5B | None | No anomalies in OpenSearch. |
Thread contention |
|
| OpenSearch results in fewer blocked threads and much shorter durations. |
Jira node count | 5 | 3 | OpenSearch delivers similar performance with fewer nodes. |
Ready to make the switch?
OpenSearch is designed to help your Jira instance grow, perform, and stay reliable—no matter how large your team or your data becomes. If you’re ready to take advantage of faster search, easier scaling, and a more resilient platform, consider enabling OpenSearch for your Jira Data Center instance.