Is Elasticsearch important?

[smolinari]

Hi,

Does ES have to be installed or rather, how important is it to a production system?

Scott

[smolinari]

Nevermind. I asked AI (Gemini):

In the context of the Temporal platform, Elasticsearch serves as an optional but highly recommended component for advanced visibility and querying of workflow execution history. Temporal itself stores workflow execution history in its persistence layer (usually a relational database like PostgreSQL or MySQL), but this storage is optimized for operational purposes (workflow execution, state management) and not for complex analytical queries or full-text search.  

Here's how Elasticsearch integrates with Temporal and why it's beneficial:

How Elasticsearch Integrates with Temporal:

Temporal provides a feature called "visibility" which allows you to index workflow execution data into Elasticsearch. This indexing is done asynchronously, meaning it doesn't impact the performance of workflow executions themselves.

The visibility feature indexes the following information about workflow executions:

Workflow ID
Run ID
Workflow type
Start time
Close time
Workflow status (e.g., running, completed, failed)
Search attributes (custom metadata that you can add to your workflows)
Execution history (events related to workflow execution)
Benefits of Using Elasticsearch with Temporal:

Advanced Search and Filtering: Elasticsearch provides powerful search capabilities, including:

Full-text search: Search workflow executions based on text within search attributes or event history.
Filtering: Filter workflows based on various criteria (e.g., workflow type, status, start time range).  
Aggregations: Perform aggregations on workflow data (e.g., count workflows by status, average execution time).
Improved Observability and Debugging: Elasticsearch makes it much easier to observe and debug workflow executions:

Find specific workflows quickly: Search by workflow ID, Run ID, or other relevant information.
Analyze workflow history: Examine the execution history of workflows to understand their behavior and identify any issues.
Monitor workflow performance: Track metrics like execution time and failure rates.
Custom Dashboards and Visualizations: You can use Kibana (the visualization tool for Elasticsearch) to create custom dashboards and visualizations of your workflow data. This allows you to gain insights into workflow trends and patterns.  

Retention: Elasticsearch offers flexible data retention policies. You can configure how long workflow execution data is stored in Elasticsearch, independent of Temporal's persistence retention. This allows you to retain workflow history for longer periods for auditing or analysis.  

When to Use Elasticsearch with Temporal:

Complex Queries: If you need to perform complex queries or searches on workflow execution history (beyond simple lookups by Workflow ID or Run ID), Elasticsearch is highly recommended.
Observability and Monitoring: If you need to monitor workflow performance, track metrics, or create custom dashboards, Elasticsearch is essential.
Long-Term Retention: If you need to retain workflow execution history for longer than Temporal's persistence retention period, Elasticsearch is the solution.
In summary: Elasticsearch provides advanced visibility and querying capabilities for Temporal workflows. It's an optional component but highly recommended for complex queries, improved observability, and long-term retention of workflow execution data. It enables powerful search, filtering, aggregations, and visualizations, making it much easier to understand and manage your workflow executions.