Enabled

OpenSearch tries to index all fields you provide, but sometimes you may want to store a field without making it searchable. For example, if you use OpenSearch as a web session store, you might index the session ID and last update time but store the session data itself without indexing it, since you don’t need to search or aggregate this data.

Setting the enabled parameter to false causes OpenSearch to skip parsing of the field contents entirely. OpenSearch still stores the field’s value in the _source field but does not index or parse its contents, so the field is not searchable. This parameter can be applied only to the top-level mapping definition and to object fields.

The enabled parameter accepts the following values.

The enabled parameter for existing fields and the top-level mapping definition cannot be updated.

Disabling object fields

Create an index with a disabled session_data object field. OpenSearch stores its contents in the _source field but does not index or parse it:

PUT /session_store
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "user_id": {
        "type": "keyword"
      },
      "last_updated": {
        "type": "date"
      },
      "session_data": {
        "type": "object",
        "enabled": false
      }
    }
  }
}

Index documents with different types of data in the disabled field:

PUT /session_store/_doc/session_1
{
  "user_id": "johndoe",
  "session_data": {
    "user_preferences": {
      "theme_settings": ["dark_mode", "compact_layout", {"font_size": 14}]
    }
  },
  "last_updated": "2025-02-10T07:10:53"
}

PUT /session_store/_doc/session_2
{
  "user_id": "janedoe",
  "session_data": "none",
  "last_updated": "2025-02-10T07:12:48"
}

The session_data field accepts any arbitrary data because OpenSearch completely skips parsing its contents. Both object and non-object data is accepted.

Disabling entire mappings

Disable the entire mapping to store documents without indexing any fields:

PUT /raw_storage
{
  "mappings": {
    "enabled": false
  }
}

Index a document in the disabled mapping:

PUT /raw_storage/_doc/doc_1
{
  "user_id": "janedoe",
  "session_data": {
    "user_preferences": {
      "theme_settings": ["dark_mode", "compact_layout", {"font_size": 14}]
    }
  },
  "last_updated": "2025-12-10T07:10:53"
}

To verify that the document was stored, retrieve the document:

GET /raw_storage/_doc/doc_1

The response shows that the document was successfully stored and can be retrieved from the _source field:

{
  "_index": "raw_storage",
  "_id": "doc_1",
  "_version": 1,
  "_seq_no": 0,
  "_primary_term": 1,
  "found": true,
  "_source": {
    "user_id": "janedoe",
    "session_data": {
      "user_preferences": {
        "theme_settings": [
          "dark_mode",
          "compact_layout",
          {
            "font_size": 14
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    "last_updated": "2025-12-10T07:10:53"
  }
}

Verify the mapping to confirm that no fields were added:

GET /raw_storage/_mapping

The document can be retrieved from _source, but none of its contents are indexed, so no fields appear in the mapping and the document cannot be searched:

{
  "raw_storage": {
    "mappings": {
      "enabled": false
    }
  }
}