Solr Control Script Reference

Solr includes a script known as “bin/solr” that allows you to perform many common operations on your Solr installation or cluster.

You can start and stop Solr, create and delete collections or cores, perform operations on ZooKeeper and check the status of Solr and configured shards.

You can find the script in the bin/ directory of your Solr installation. The bin/solr script makes Solr easier to work with by providing simple commands and options to quickly accomplish common goals.

More examples of bin/solr in use are available throughout this Guide, but particularly in the sections Starting Solr and Getting Started with SolrCloud.

Starting and Stopping

Start and Restart

The start command starts Solr. The restart command allows you to restart Solr while it is already running or if it has been stopped already.

The start and restart commands have several options to allow you to run in SolrCloud mode, use an example configuration set, start with a hostname or port that is not the default and point to a local ZooKeeper ensemble.

bin/solr start [options]

bin/solr start --help

bin/solr restart [options]

bin/solr restart --help

When using the restart command, you must pass all of the parameters you initially passed when you started Solr. Behind the scenes, a stop request is initiated, so Solr will be stopped before being started again. If no nodes are already running, restart will skip the step to stop and proceed to starting Solr.

Start Parameters

The bin/solr script provides many options to allow you to customize the server in common ways, such as changing the listening port. However, most of the defaults are adequate for most Solr installations, especially when just getting started.

-a "<jvmParams>"

Optional

Default: none

Start Solr with additional JVM parameters, such as those starting with -X. For example setting up Java debugger to attach to the Solr JVM you could pass: -a "-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=18983". In most cases, you should wrap the additional parameters in double quotes.

If you are passing JVM parameters that begin with -D, you can omit the -a option.

Example:

bin/solr start -a "-Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket, server=y,suspend=n,address=1044"

-j "<jettyParams>"

Optional

Default: none

Additional parameters to pass to Jetty when starting Solr. For example, to add configuration folder that Jetty should read you could pass: -j "--include-jetty-dir=/etc/jetty/custom/server/". In most cases, you should wrap the additional parameters in double quotes.

--cloud or -c

Optional

Default: none

Start Solr in SolrCloud mode, which will also launch the embedded ZooKeeper instance included with Solr. The embedded ZooKeeper instance is started on Solr port+1000, so 9983 if Solr is bound to 8983.

If you are already running a ZooKeeper ensemble that you want to use instead of the embedded (single-node) ZooKeeper, you should also either specify ZK_HOST in solr.in.sh/solr.in.cmd (see Updating Solr Include Files) or pass the -z parameter.

For more details, see the section SolrCloud Mode below.

Example: bin/solr start -c

-d <dir>

Optional

Default: server/

Define a server directory, defaults to server (as in, $SOLR_TIP/server). It is uncommon to override this option. When running multiple instances of Solr on the same host, it is more common to use the same server directory for each instance and use a unique Solr home directory using the -s option.

Example: bin/solr start -d newServerDir

-e <name>

Optional

Default: none

Start Solr with an example configuration. These examples are provided to help you get started faster with Solr generally, or just try a specific feature.

The available options are:

cloud: SolrCloud example
techproducts: Comprehensive example illustrating many of Solr’s core capabilities
schemaless: Schema-less example (schema is inferred from data during indexing)
films: Example of starting with _default configset and adding explicit fields dynamically

See the section Running with Example Configurations below for more details on the example configurations.

Example: bin/solr start -e schemaless

-f

Optional

Default: none

Start Solr in the foreground and sends stdout / stderr to solr-PORT-console.log. You cannot use this option when running examples with the -e option.

Example: bin/solr start -f

--host <hostname>

Optional

Default: localhost

Specify the hostname for this Solr instance. If this is not specified, localhost is assumed.

Example: bin/solr start --host search.mysolr.com

-m <memory>

Optional

Default: 512m

Sets the min (-Xms) and max (-Xmx) heap size for the JVM running Solr.

Example: bin/solr start -m 4g results in -Xms4g -Xmx4g settings.

--no-prompt

Optional

Default: none

Don’t prompt for input; accept all defaults when running examples that accept user input.

For example, when using the "cloud" example, an interactive session guides you through several options for your SolrCloud cluster. If you want to accept all of the defaults, you can simply add the --no-prompt option to your request.

Example: bin/solr start -e cloud --no-prompt

-p <port>

Optional

Default: 8983

Specify the port to start the Solr HTTP listener on; with the classic default port for Solr being 8983. The specified port (SOLR_PORT) will also be used to determine the stop port. The stop port is defined as STOP_PORT=($SOLR_PORT-1000) and JMX RMI listen port is defined as RMI_PORT=($SOLR_PORT+10000). For instance, if you set -p 8985, then the STOP_PORT=7985 and RMI_PORT=18985. If this is not specified, 8983 will be used.

Example: bin/solr start -p 8655

-s <dir>

Optional

Default: server/solr

Sets the solr.solr.home system property. Solr will create core directories under this directory. This allows you to run multiple Solr instances on the same host while reusing the same server directory set using the -d parameter. If set, the specified directory should contain a solr.xml file, unless solr.xml exists in Zookeeper.

This parameter is ignored when running examples (-e), as the solr.solr.home depends on which example is run.

The default value is server/solr. If passed relative dir, validation with current dir will be done, before trying default server/<dir>.

Example: bin/solr start -s newHome

-t <dir> or --data-home <dir>

Optional

Default: solr.solr.home

Sets the solr.data.home system property, where Solr will store index data in <instance_dir>/data subdirectories. If not set, Solr uses solr.solr.home for config and data.

-v

Optional

Default: none

Be more verbose. This changes the logging level of Log4j in Solr from INFO to DEBUG, having the same effect as if you edited log4j2.xml.

Example: bin/solr start -f -v

-q

Optional

Default: none

Be more quiet. This changes the logging level of Log4j in Solr from INFO to WARN, having the same effect as if you edited log4j2.xml. This can be useful in a production setting where you want to limit logging to warnings and errors.

Example: bin/solr start -f -q

-V or --verbose

Optional

Default: none

Verbose messages from this script.

Example: bin/solr start -V

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Optional

Default: see description

Zookeeper connection string, this option is only used with the -c option, to start Solr in SolrCloud mode. If ZK_HOST is not specified in solr.in.sh/solr.in.cmd and this option is not provided, Solr will start the embedded ZooKeeper instance and use that instance for SolrCloud operations.

Set the ZK_CREATE_CHROOT environment variable to true if your ZK host has a chroot path, and you want to create it automatically.

Example: bin/solr start -c -z server1:2181,server2:2181

--force

Optional

Default: none

If attempting to start Solr as the root user, the script will exit with a warning that running Solr as "root" can cause problems. It is possible to override this warning with the --force parameter.

Example: sudo bin/solr start --force

To emphasize how the default settings work take a moment to understand that the following commands are equivalent:

bin/solr start

bin/solr start -h localhost -p 8983 -d server -s solr -m 512m

It is not necessary to define all of the options when starting if the defaults are fine for your needs.

Setting Java System Properties

The bin/solr script will pass any additional parameters that begin with -D to the JVM, which allows you to set arbitrary Java system properties.

For example, to set the auto soft-commit frequency to 3 seconds, you can do:

bin/solr start -Dsolr.autoSoftCommit.maxTime=3000

Solr will also convert any environment variable on the format SOLR_FOO_BAR to system property solr.foo.bar, making it possible to inject most properties through the environment, e.g:

SOLR_LOG_LEVEL=debug bin/solr start

The SOLR_OPTS environment variable is also available to set additional System Properties for Solr.

In order to set custom System Properties when running any Solr utility other than start (e.g. stop, create, auth, status, api), the SOLR_TOOL_OPTS environment variable should be used.

SolrCloud Mode

The -c and --cloud options are equivalent:

bin/solr start -c

bin/solr start --cloud

If you specify a ZooKeeper connection string, such as -z 192.168.1.4:2181, then Solr will connect to ZooKeeper and join the cluster.

If you have defined ZK_HOST in solr.in.sh/solr.in.cmd (see Updating Solr Include Files) you can omit -z <zk host string> from all bin/solr commands.

When starting Solr in SolrCloud mode, if you do not define ZK_HOST in solr.in.sh/solr.in.cmd nor specify the -z option, then Solr will launch an embedded ZooKeeper server listening on the Solr port + 1000. For example, if Solr is running on port 8983, then the embedded ZooKeeper will listen on port 9983.

If your ZooKeeper connection string uses a chroot, such as localhost:2181/solr, then you need to create the /solr znode before launching SolrCloud using the bin/solr script.

To do this use the mkroot command outlined below, for example: bin/solr zk mkroot /solr -z 192.168.1.4:2181

When starting in SolrCloud mode, the interactive script session will prompt you to choose a configset to use.

For more information about starting Solr in SolrCloud mode, see also the section Getting Started with SolrCloud.

Running with Example Configurations

bin/solr start -e <name>

The example configurations allow you to get started quickly with a configuration that mirrors what you hope to accomplish with Solr.

Each example launches Solr with a managed schema, which allows use of the Schema API to make schema edits, but does not allow manual editing of a Schema file.

If you would prefer to manually modify a schema.xml file directly, you can change this default as described in the section Schema Factory Configuration.

Unless otherwise noted in the descriptions below, the examples do not enable SolrCloud nor Schemaless Mode.

The following examples are provided:

cloud: This example starts a 1-4 node SolrCloud cluster on a single machine. When chosen, an interactive session will start to guide you through options to select the initial configset to use, the number of nodes for your example cluster, the ports to use, and name of the collection to be created.

When using this example, you can choose from any of the available configsets found in $SOLR_TIP/server/solr/configsets.
techproducts: This example starts a single-node Solr instance with a schema designed for the sample documents included in the $SOLR_HOME/example/exampledocs directory.

The configset used can be found in $SOLR_TIP/server/solr/configsets/sample_techproducts_configs.

The data used can be found in $SOLR_HOME/example/exampledocs/.
schemaless: This example starts a single-node Solr instance using a managed schema, as described in the section Schema Factory Configuration, and provides a very minimal pre-defined schema. Solr will run in Schemaless Mode with this configuration, where Solr will create fields in the schema on the fly and will guess field types used in incoming documents.

The configset used can be found in $SOLR_TIP/server/solr/configsets/_default.
films: This example starts a single-node Solr instance using a managed schema, as described in the section Schema Factory Configuration, and then uses the Schema API to create some custom fields. Solr will run in Schemaless Mode with this configuration, where Solr will create fields in the schema on the fly and will guess field types used in incoming documents as well. It then loads some sample film data.

The configset used can be found in $SOLR_TIP/server/solr/configsets/_default.

The film data used can be found in $SOLR_HOME/example/films/films.json.

The run in-foreground option (-f) is not compatible with the -e option since the script needs to perform additional tasks after starting the Solr server.

Stop

The stop command sends a STOP request to a running Solr node, which allows it to shutdown gracefully. The command will wait up to 180 seconds for Solr to stop gracefully and then will forcefully kill the process (kill -9).

bin/solr stop [options]

bin/solr stop --help

Stop Parameters

-p <port>

Optional

Default: none

Stop Solr running on the given port. If you are running more than one instance, or are running in SolrCloud mode, you either need to specify the ports in separate requests or use the --all option.

Example: bin/solr stop -p 8983

--all

Optional

Default: none

Find and stop all running Solr servers on this host that have a valid PID.

Example: bin/solr stop --all

-k <key>

Optional

Default: none

Stop key used to protect from stopping Solr inadvertently; default is "solrrocks".

Example: bin/solr stop -k solrrocks

-V or --verbose

Optional

Default: none

Stop Solr with verbose messages from this script.

Example: bin/solr stop -V

System Information

Version

The version command simply returns the version of Solr currently installed and immediately exists.

$ bin/solr version
X.Y.0

Status

The status command displays basic JSON-formatted status information for all locally running Solr servers.

The status command uses the SOLR_PID_DIR environment variable to locate Solr process ID files to find running Solr instances, which defaults to the bin directory.

bin/solr status

The output will include a status of each node of the cluster, as in this example:

Found 2 Solr nodes:

Solr process 39920 running on port 7574
{
  "solr_home":"/Applications/Solr/example/cloud/node2/solr/",
  "version":"X.Y.0",
  "startTime":"2015-02-10T17:19:54.739Z",
  "uptime":"1 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes, 48 seconds",
  "memory":"77.2 MB (%15.7) of 490.7 MB",
  "cloud":{
    "ZooKeeper":"localhost:9865",
    "liveNodes":"2",
    "collections":"2"}}

Solr process 39827 running on port 8865
{
  "solr_home":"/Applications/Solr/example/cloud/node1/solr/",
  "version":"X.Y.0",
  "startTime":"2015-02-10T17:19:49.057Z",
  "uptime":"1 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes, 54 seconds",
  "memory":"94.2 MB (%19.2) of 490.7 MB",
  "cloud":{
    "ZooKeeper":"localhost:9865",
    "liveNodes":"2",
    "collections":"2"}}

Assert

The assert command sanity checks common issues with Solr installations. These include checking the ownership/existence of particular directories, and ensuring Solr is available on the expected URL. The command can either output a specified error message, or change its exit code to indicate errors.

As an example:

$ bin/solr assert --exists /opt/bin/solr

Results in the output below:

ERROR: Directory /opt/bin/solr does not exist.

The basic usage of bin/solr assert is:

$ bin/solr assert -h
usage: bin/solr assert [-m <message>] [-e] [-rR] [-s <url>] [-S <url>] [-c
                <url>] [-C <url>] [-u <dir>] [-x <dir>] [-X <dir>]
 -c,---cloud <url>             Asserts that Solr is running in cloud mode.
                               Also fails if Solr not running.  URL should
                               be for root Solr path.
 -C,--not-cloud <url>          Asserts that Solr is not running in cloud
                               mode.  Also fails if Solr not running.  URL
                               should be for root Solr path.
 -e,--exitcode                 Return an exit code instead of printing
                               error message on assert fail.
 -h,--help                     Print this message.
 -m,--message <message>        Exception message to be used in place of
                               the default error message.
 -R,--not-root                 Asserts that we are NOT the root user.
 -r,--root                     Asserts that we are the root user.
 -S,--not-started <url>        Asserts that Solr is NOT running on a
                               certain URL. Default timeout is 1000ms.
 -s,--started <url>            Asserts that Solr is running on a certain
                               URL. Default timeout is 1000ms.
 -t,--timeout <ms>             Timeout in ms for commands supporting a
                               timeout.
 -u,--same-user <directory>    Asserts that we run as same user that owns
                               <directory>.
 -v,--verbose                  Enable more verbose command output.
 -x,--exists <directory>       Asserts that directory <directory> exists.
 -X,--not-exists <directory>   Asserts that directory <directory> does NOT
                               exist.
 -u,--credentials <user:pass>  Username and password for Basic authentication.

Healthcheck

The healthcheck command generates a JSON-formatted health report for a collection when running in SolrCloud mode. The health report provides information about the state of every replica for all shards in a collection, including the number of committed documents and its current state.

bin/solr healthcheck [options]

bin/solr healthcheck --help

Healthcheck Parameters

-c <collection>

Required

Default: none

Name of the collection to run a healthcheck against.

Example: bin/solr healthcheck -c gettingstarted

--solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: none

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

-z <zkhost> or --zk-host <zkhost>

Optional

Default: localhost:9983

ZooKeeper connection string. If you are running Solr on a port other than 8983, you will have to specify the ZooKeeper connection string. By default, this will be the Solr port + 1000. This parameter is unnecessary if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: bin/solr healthcheck -z localhost:2181

Below is an example healthcheck request and response using a non-standard ZooKeeper connect string, with 2 nodes running:

$ bin/solr healthcheck -c gettingstarted -z localhost:9865

{
  "collection":"gettingstarted",
  "status":"healthy",
  "numDocs":0,
  "numShards":2,
  "shards":[
    {
      "shard":"shard1",
      "status":"healthy",
      "replicas":[
        {
          "name":"core_node1",
          "url":"http://10.0.1.10:8865/solr/gettingstarted_shard1_replica2/",
          "numDocs":0,
          "status":"active",
          "uptime":"2 days, 1 hours, 18 minutes, 48 seconds",
          "memory":"25.6 MB (%5.2) of 490.7 MB",
          "leader":true},
        {
          "name":"core_node4",
          "url":"http://10.0.1.10:7574/solr/gettingstarted_shard1_replica1/",
          "numDocs":0,
          "status":"active",
          "uptime":"2 days, 1 hours, 18 minutes, 42 seconds",
          "memory":"95.3 MB (%19.4) of 490.7 MB"}]},
    {
      "shard":"shard2",
      "status":"healthy",
      "replicas":[
        {
          "name":"core_node2",
          "url":"http://10.0.1.10:8865/solr/gettingstarted_shard2_replica2/",
          "numDocs":0,
          "status":"active",
          "uptime":"2 days, 1 hours, 18 minutes, 48 seconds",
          "memory":"25.8 MB (%5.3) of 490.7 MB"},
        {
          "name":"core_node3",
          "url":"http://10.0.1.10:7574/solr/gettingstarted_shard2_replica1/",
          "numDocs":0,
          "status":"active",
          "uptime":"2 days, 1 hours, 18 minutes, 42 seconds",
          "memory":"95.4 MB (%19.4) of 490.7 MB",
          "leader":true}]}]}

Collections and Cores

The bin/solr script can also help you create new collections or cores, or delete collections or cores.

Create a Core or Collection

The create command creates a core or collection depending on whether Solr is running in standalone (core) or SolrCloud mode (collection). In other words, this action detects which mode Solr is running in, and then takes the appropriate action (either create_core or create_collection).

bin/solr create [options]

bin/solr create --help

Create Core or Collection Parameters

-c <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the core or collection to create.

Example: bin/solr create -c mycollection

-d <confdir> or --conf-dir <confdir>

Optional

Default: _default

The configuration directory.

See the section Configuration Directories and SolrCloud below for more details about this option when running in SolrCloud mode.

Example: bin/solr create -d _default

-n <configName>

Optional

Default: see description

The configuration name. This defaults to the same name as the core or collection.

Example: bin/solr create -n basic

-p <port> or -port <port>

Optional

Default: see description

The port of a local Solr instance to send the create command to. By default the script tries to detect the port by looking for running Solr instances.

This option is useful if you are running multiple Solr instances on the same host, thus requiring you to be specific about which instance to create the core in.

Example: bin/solr create -p 8983

-s <shards> or -shards <shards>

Optional

Default: 1

Number of shards to split a collection into. Only applies when Solr is running in SolrCloud mode.

Example: bin/solr create -s 2

-rf <replicas> or --replication-factor <replicas>

Optional

Default: 1

Number of copies of each document in the collection. The default is 1 (no replication).

Example: bin/solr create -rf 2

--force

Optional

Default: none

If attempting to run create as "root" user, the script will exit with a warning that running Solr or actions against Solr as "root" can cause problems. It is possible to override this warning with the --force parameter.

Example: bin/solr create -c foo --force

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Optional

Default: localhost:9983

The ZooKeeper connection string, usable in SolrCloud mode. Unnecessary if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

--solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

bin/solr create_collection [options]

bin/solr create_collection -help

Create Collection Parameters

-c <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the collection to create.

Example: bin/solr create_collection -c mycollection

-d <confdir>

Optional

Default: _default

Configuration directory to copy when creating the new collection.

See the section Configuration Directories and SolrCloud below for more details about this option when running in SolrCloud mode. including some built in example configurations.

_default is also known as Schemaless Mode.

Example: bin/solr create_collection -d _default

Alternatively, you can pass the path to your own configuration directory instead of using one of the built-in configurations.

Example: bin/solr create_collection -c mycoll -d /tmp/myconfig

By default the script will upload the specified confdir directory into Zookeeper using the same name as the collection (-c) option. Alternatively, if you want to reuse an existing directory or create a confdir in Zookeeper that can be shared by multiple collections, use the -n option

-n <configName>

Optional

Default: see description

Name the configuration directory in Zookeeper. By default, the configuration will be uploaded to Zookeeper using the collection name (-c), but if you want to use an existing directory or override the name of the configuration in Zookeeper, then use the -c option. UMMMM… I COPIED THE ABOVE LINE FROM bin/solr create_collection -h output, but I don’t get it. And bin/solr create_collection -n basic -c mycoll works, it create a copy of _default as "basic" configset… UMMM?

Example: bin/solr create_collection -n basic -c mycoll

-p <port> or -port <port>

Optional

Default: see description

Port of a local Solr instance where you want to create the new collection. If not specified, the script will search the local system for a running Solr instance and will use the port of the first server it finds.

This option is useful if you are running multiple Solr instances on the same host, thus requiring you to be specific about which instance to create the core in.

Example: bin/solr create -p 8983

-s <shards> or -shards <shards>

Optional

Default: 1

Number of shards to split a collection into.

Example: bin/solr create_collection -s 2

-rf <replicas> or -replicationFactor <replicas>

Optional

Default: 1

Number of copies of each document in the collection. The default is 1 (no replication).

Example: bin/solr create_collection -rf 2

-force

Optional

Default: none

Example: bin/solr create_collection -c foo -force

Create a Core

The create_core command creates a core and is only available when running in user-managed (single-node) mode.

bin/solr create_core [options]

bin/solr create_core -help

Create Core Parameters

-c <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the core to create.

Example: bin/solr create -c mycore

-d <confdir>

Optional

Default: _default

The configuration directory to use when creating a new core.

Example: bin/solr create -d _default

Alternatively, you can pass the path to your own configuration directory instead of using one of the built-in configurations.

Example: bin/solr create_collection -c mycore -d /tmp/myconfig

-p <port> or -port <port>

Optional

Default: see description

The port of a local Solr instance to create the new core. By default the script tries to detect the port by looking for running Solr instances.

This option is useful if you are running multiple Solr instances on the same host, thus requiring you to be specific about which instance to create the core in.

Example: bin/solr create -p 8983

-force

Optional

Default: none

Example: bin/solr create -c foo -force

Configuration Directories and SolrCloud

Before creating a collection in SolrCloud, the configuration directory used by the collection must be uploaded to ZooKeeper. The create and create_collection commands supports several use cases for how collections and configuration directories work. The main decision you need to make is whether a configuration directory in ZooKeeper should be shared across multiple collections.

Let’s work through a few examples to illustrate how configuration directories work in SolrCloud.

First, if you don’t provide the -d or -n options, then the default configuration ($SOLR_TIP/server/solr/configsets/_default/conf) is uploaded to ZooKeeper using the same name as the collection.

For example, the following command will result in the _default configuration being uploaded to /configs/contacts in ZooKeeper: bin/solr create -c contacts.

If you create another collection with bin/solr create -c contacts2, then another copy of the _default directory will be uploaded to ZooKeeper under /configs/contacts2.

Any changes you make to the configuration for the contacts collection will not affect the contacts2 collection. Put simply, the default behavior creates a unique copy of the configuration directory for each collection you create.

You can override the name given to the configuration directory in ZooKeeper by using the -n option. For instance, the command bin/solr create -c logs -d _default -n basic will upload the server/solr/configsets/_default/conf directory to ZooKeeper as /configs/basic.

Notice that we used the -d option to specify a different configuration than the default. Solr provides several built-in configurations under server/solr/configsets. However you can also provide the path to your own configuration directory using the -d option. For instance, the command bin/solr create -c mycoll -d /tmp/myconfigs, will upload /tmp/myconfigs into ZooKeeper under /configs/mycoll.

To reiterate, the configuration directory is named after the collection unless you override it using the -n option.

Other collections can share the same configuration by specifying the name of the shared configuration using the -n option. For instance, the following command will create a new collection that shares the basic configuration created previously: bin/solr create -c logs2 -n basic.

Data-driven Schema and Shared Configurations

The _default schema can mutate as data is indexed, since it has schemaless functionality (i.e., data-driven changes to the schema). Consequently, we recommend that you do not share data-driven configurations between collections unless you are certain that all collections should inherit the changes made when indexing data into one of the collections.

You can turn off schemaless functionality for a collection with the following command, assuming the collection name is mycollection.

$ bin/solr config -c mycollection --action set-user-property --property update.autoCreateFields --value false

See also the section Set or Unset Configuration Properties.

Delete Core or Collection

The delete command detects the mode that Solr is running in and then deletes the specified core (user-managed or single-node) or collection (SolrCloud) as appropriate.

bin/solr delete [options]

bin/solr delete --help

If you’re deleting a collection in SolrCloud mode, the default behavior is to also delete the configuration directory from Zookeeper so long as it is not being used by another collection.

For example, if you created a collection with bin/solr create -c contacts, then the delete command bin/solr delete -c contacts will check to see if the /configs/contacts configuration directory is being used by any other collections. If not, then the /configs/contacts directory is removed from ZooKeeper. You can override this behavior by passing -deleteConfig false when running this command.atom

Delete Core or Collection Parameters

-c <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the core or collection to delete.

Example: bin/solr delete -c mycoll

--delete-config

Optional

Default: true

Whether or not the configuration directory should also be deleted from ZooKeeper.

If the configuration directory is being used by another collection, then it will not be deleted even if you pass --deleteConfig as true.

Example: bin/solr delete --delete-config false

--force-delete-config

Optional

Default: see description

Skip safety checks when deleting the configuration directory used by a collection.

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

This option is useful if you are running multiple Solr instances on the same host, thus requiring you to be specific about which instance to delete the core from.

The ZooKeeper connection string, usable in SolrCloud mode. Unnecessary if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

-solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

-u <user:pass> or --credentials <user:pass>

Optional

Default: none

Basic authentication username and password separated by a : character. This parameter is unnecessary if SOLR_AUTH_TYPE is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Authentication

The bin/solr script allows enabling or disabling Authentication, allowing you to configure authentication from the command line.

Currently this command is only available when using SolrCloud mode and must be run on the machine hosting Solr.

For Basic Authentication the script provides user roles and permission mappings, and maps the created user to the superadmin role. For Kerberos it only enables the security.json, it doesn’t set up any users or role mappings.

Enabling Basic Authentication

The command bin/solr auth enable configures Solr to use Basic Authentication when accessing the User Interface, using bin/solr and any API requests.

For more information about Solr’s authentication plugins, see the section Securing Solr. For more information on Basic Authentication support specifically, see the section Basic Authentication Plugin.

The bin/solr auth enable command makes several changes to enable Basic Authentication:

Take the base security.json file, evolves it using auth command parameters, and uploads the new file to ZooKeeper.

Adds two lines to bin/solr.in.sh or bin\solr.in.cmd to set the authentication type, and the path to basicAuth.conf:

# The following lines added by ./solr for enabling BasicAuth
SOLR_AUTH_TYPE="basic"
SOLR_AUTHENTICATION_OPTS="-Dsolr.httpclient.config=/path/to/solr-9.7.0/server/solr/basicAuth.conf"

Creates the file server/solr/basicAuth.conf to store the credential information that is used with bin/solr commands.

Here are some example usages:

Usage: solr auth enable [--type basicAuth] --credentials user:pass [--block-unknown <true|false>] [--update-include-file-only <true|false>] [-v]
       solr auth enable [--type basicAuth] --prompt <true|false> [--block-unknown <true|false>] [--update-include-file-only <true|false>] [-v]
       solr auth enable --type kerberos --config <kerberos configs> [--update-include-file-only <true|false>] [-v]
       solr auth disable [--update-include-file-only <true|false>] [-v]

The command takes the following parameters:

-credentials <user:pass>

Optional

Default: none

The username and password in the format of username:password of the initial user. Applicable for basicAuth only.

If you prefer not to pass the username and password as an argument to the script, you can choose the --prompt option. Either --credentials or --prompt must be specified.

--prompt <true|false>

Optional

Default: none

Prompts the user to provide the credentials. If prompt is preferred, pass true as a parameter to request the script prompt the user to enter a username and password.

Either --credentials or --prompt must be specified.

--block-unknown <true|false>

Optional

Default: true

When true, this blocks out access to unauthenticated users from accessing Solr. When false, unauthenticated users will still be able to access Solr, but only for operations not explicitly requiring a user role in the Authorization plugin configuration.

--solrIncludeFile <includeFilePath>

Optional

Default: none

Specify the full path to the include file in the environment. If not specified this script looks for an include file named solr.in.sh to set environment variables. Specifically, the following locations are searched in this order:

<script location>/.
$HOME/.solr.in.sh
/usr/share/solr
/usr/local/share/solr
/etc/default
/var/solr
/opt/solr

--update-include-file-only <true|false>

Optional

Default: false

When true, only update the bin/solr.in.sh or bin\solr.in.cmd, and skip actual enabling/disabling authentication (i.e. don’t update security.json).

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Optional

Default: none

Defines the ZooKeeper connect string. This is useful if you want to enable authentication before all your Solr nodes have come up. Unnecessary if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

-d <dir>

Optional

Default: $SOLR_TIP/server

Defines the Solr server directory, by default $SOLR_TIP/server. It is not common to need to override the default, and is only needed if you have customized the $SOLR_HOME directory path.

-s <dir> or --solr-home <dir>

Optional

Default: server/solr

Defines the location of solr.solr.home, which by default is server/solr. If you have multiple instances of Solr on the same host, or if you have customized the $SOLR_HOME directory path, you likely need to define this. This is where any credentials or authentication configuration files (e.g. basicAuth.conf) would be placed.

Disabling Basic Authentication

You can disable Basic Authentication with bin/solr auth disable.

If the --update-include-file-only option is set to true, then only the settings in bin/solr.in.sh or bin\solr.in.cmd will be updated, and security.json will not be removed.

If the --update-include-file-only option is set to false, then the settings in bin/solr.in.sh or bin\solr.in.cmd will be updated, and security.json will be removed. However, the basicAuth.conf file is not removed with either option.

Set or Unset Configuration Properties

The bin/solr script enables a subset of the Config API: (un)setting common properties and (un)setting user-defined properties.

bin/solr config [options]

bin/solr config --help

Set or Unset Common Properties

To set the common property updateHandler.autoCommit.maxDocs to 100 on collection mycollection:

bin/solr config -c mycollection --action set-property --property updateHandler.autoCommit.maxDocs --value 100

The default --action is set-property, so the above can be shortened by not mentioning it:

bin/solr config -c mycollection --property updateHandler.autoCommit.maxDocs --value 100

To unset a previously set common property, specify --action unset-property with no --value:

bin/solr config -c mycollection --action unset-property --property updateHandler.autoCommit.maxDocs

Set or Unset User-Defined Properties

To set the user-defined property update.autoCreateFields to false (to disable Schemaless Mode):

bin/solr config -c mycollection --action set-user-property --property update.autoCreateFields --value false

To unset a previously set user-defined property, specify --action unset-user-property with no --value:

bin/solr config -c mycollection --action unset-user-property --property update.autoCreateFields

Config Parameters

-c <name> or --name <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the core or collection on which to change configuration.

--action <name>

Optional

Default: set-property

Config API action, one of: set-property, unset-property, set-user-property, unset-user-property.

--property <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the Config API property to apply the action to, such as: 'updateHandler.autoSoftCommit.maxTime'.

--value <new-value>

Optional

Default: none

Set the property to this value; accepts JSON objects and strings.

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Optional

Default: localhost:9983

The ZooKeeper connection string, usable in SolrCloud mode. Unnecessary if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

-u <url> or --solr-url <url>`

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983/solr

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

ZooKeeper Operations

The bin/solr script allows certain operations affecting ZooKeeper. These operations are for SolrCloud mode only.

The operations are available as sub-commands, which each have their own set of options.

bin/solr zk [sub-command] [options]

bin/solr zk --help

The basic usage of bin/solr zk is:

$ bin/solr zk -h
Usage: solr zk upconfig|downconfig -d <confdir> -n <configName> [-z zkHost] [-s solrUrl]
         solr zk cp [-r] <src> <dest> [-z zkHost] [-s solrUrl]
         solr zk rm [-r] <path> [-z zkHost] [-s solrUrl]
         solr zk mv <src> <dest> [-z zkHost] [-s solrUrl]
         solr zk ls [-r] <path> [-z zkHost] [-s solrUrl]
         solr zk mkroot <path> [-z zkHost] [-s solrUrl]

Solr should have been started at least once before issuing these commands to initialize ZooKeeper with the znodes Solr expects. Once ZooKeeper is initialized, Solr doesn’t need to be running on any node to use these commands.

Upload a Configuration Set

Use the zk upconfig command to upload one of the pre-configured configuration sets or a customized configuration set to ZooKeeper.

ZK Upload Parameters

All parameters below are required.

-n <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the configuration set in ZooKeeper. This command will upload the configuration set to the "configs" ZooKeeper node giving it the name specified.

You can see all uploaded configuration sets in the Admin UI via the Cloud screens. Choose Cloud → Tree → configs to see them.

If a pre-existing configuration set is specified, it will be overwritten in ZooKeeper.

Example: -n myconfig

-d <configset dir>

Required

Default: none

The local directory of the configuration set to upload. It should have a conf directory immediately below it that in turn contains solrconfig.xml etc.

If just a name is supplied, $SOLR_TIP/server/solr/configsets will be checked for this name. An absolute path may be supplied instead.

Examples:

-d directory_under_configsets
-d /path/to/configset/source

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Required

Default: none

The ZooKeeper connection string. Is not required if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: -z 123.321.23.43:2181

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

An example of this command with all of the parameters is:

bin/solr zk upconfig -z 111.222.333.444:2181 -n mynewconfig -d /path/to/configset

Reload Collections When Changing Configurations

This command does not automatically make changes effective! It simply uploads the configuration sets to ZooKeeper. You can use the Collection API’s RELOAD command to reload any collections that uses this configuration set.

Download a Configuration Set

Use the zk downconfig command to download a configuration set from ZooKeeper to the local filesystem.

ZK Download Parameters

All parameters listed below are required.

-n <name>

Required

Default: none

Name of the configset in ZooKeeper to download. The Admin UI Cloud → Tree → configs node lists all available configuration sets.

Example: -n myconfig

-d <configset dir>

Required

Default: none

The path to write the downloaded configuration set into. If just a name is supplied, $SOLR_TIP/server/solr/configsets will be the parent. An absolute path may be supplied as well.

In either case, pre-existing configurations at the destination will be overwritten!

Examples:

-d directory_under_configsets
-d /path/to/configset/destination

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Required

Default: none

The ZooKeeper connection string. Unnecessary if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: -z 123.321.23.43:2181

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

An example of this command with all parameters is:

bin/solr zk downconfig -z 111.222.333.444:2181 -n mynewconfig -d /path/to/configset

A best practice is to keep your configuration sets in some form of version control as the system-of-record. In that scenario, downconfig should rarely be used.

Copy between Local Files and ZooKeeper znodes

Use the zk cp command for transferring files and directories between ZooKeeper znodes and your local drive. This command will copy from the local drive to ZooKeeper, from ZooKeeper to the local drive or from ZooKeeper to ZooKeeper.

ZK Copy Parameters

-r

Optional

Default: none

Recursively copy <src> to <dst>. The command will fail if the <src> has children and -r is not specified.

Example: -r

<src>

Required

Default: none

The file or path to copy from. If prefixed with zk: then the source is presumed to be ZooKeeper. If no prefix or the prefix is file: then it is presumed to be the local drive. At least one of <src> or <dest> must be prefixed by zk: or the command will fail.

Examples:

zk:/configs/myconfigs/solrconfig.xml
file:/Users/apache/configs/src

<dest>

Required

Default: none

The file or path to copy to. If prefixed with zk: then the source is presumed to be ZooKeeper. If no prefix or the prefix is file: then it is presumed to be the local drive.

At least one of <src> or <dest> must be prefixed by zk: or the command will fail. If <dest> ends in a slash character it names a directory.

Examples:

zk:/configs/myconfigs/solrconfig.xml
file:/Users/apache/configs/src

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Required

Default: none

The ZooKeeper connection string. Optional if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: -z 123.321.23.43:2181

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

When <src> is a zk resource, <dest> may be '.'. If <dest> ends with '/', then <dest> will be a local folder or parent znode and the last element of the <src> path will be appended unless <src> also ends in a slash. <dest> may be zk:, which may be useful when using the cp -r form to backup/restore the entire zk state. You must enclose local paths that end in a wildcard in quotes or just end the local path in a slash. That is, bin/solr zk cp -r /some/dir/ zk:/ -z localhost:2181 is equivalent to bin/solr zk cp -r "/some/dir/" zk:/ -z localhost:2181 but bin/solr zk cp -r /some/dir/\ zk:/ -z localhost:2181 will throw an error.

Here’s an example of backup/restore for a ZK configuration:

To copy to local: bin/solr zk cp -r zk:/ /some/dir -z localhost:2181

To restore to ZK: bin/solr zk cp -r /some/dir/ zk:/ -z localhost:2181

The file: prefix is stripped, thus file:/wherever specifies an absolute local path and file:somewhere specifies a relative local path. All paths on Zookeeper are absolute.

Zookeeper nodes CAN have data, so moving a single file to a parent znode will overlay the data on the parent Znode so specifying the trailing slash can be important.

Trailing wildcards are supported when copying from localand must be quoted.

Other examples are:

Recursively copy a directory from local to ZooKeeper: bin/solr zk cp -r file:/apache/confgs/whatever/conf zk:/configs/myconf -z 111.222.333.444:2181

Copy a single file from ZooKeeper to local: bin/solr zk cp zk:/configs/myconf/managed_schema /configs/myconf/managed_schema -z 111.222.333.444:2181

Remove a znode from ZooKeeper

Use the zk rm command to remove a znode (and optionally all child nodes) from ZooKeeper.

ZK Remove Parameters

-r

Optional

Default: none

Recursively delete if <path> is a directory. Command will fail if <path> has children and -r is not specified.

Example: -r

<path>

Required

Default: none

The path to remove from ZooKeeper, either a parent or leaf node.

There are limited safety checks, you cannot remove / or /zookeeper nodes.

The path is assumed to be a ZooKeeper node, no zk: prefix is necessary.

Examples:

/configs
/configs/myconfigset
/configs/myconfigset/solrconfig.xml

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Required

Default: none

The ZooKeeper connection string. Optional if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: -z 123.321.23.43:2181

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

Examples of this command with the parameters are:

bin/solr zk rm -r /configs

bin/solr zk rm /configs/myconfigset/schema.xml

Move One ZooKeeper znode to Another (Rename)

Use the zk mv command to move (rename) a ZooKeeper znode.

ZK Move Parameters

<src>

Required

Default: none

The znode to rename. The zk: prefix is assumed.

Example: /configs/oldconfigset

<dest>

Required

Default: none

The new name of the znode. The zk: prefix is assumed.

Example: /configs/newconfigset

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Required

Default: none

The ZooKeeper connection string. Unnecessary if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: -z 123.321.23.43:2181

An example of this command is:

bin/solr zk mv /configs/oldconfigset /configs/newconfigset

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

List a ZooKeeper znode’s Children

Use the zk ls command to see the children of a znode.

ZK List Parameters

-r

Optional

Default: none

Recursively list all descendants of a znode. Only the node names are listed, not the data.

Example: -r

<path>

Required

Default: none

The path on ZooKeeper to list.

Example: /collections/mycollection

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Required

Default: none

The ZooKeeper connection string. Optional if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: -z 123.321.23.43:2181

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

An example of this command with the parameters is:

bin/solr zk ls -r /collections/mycollection

bin/solr zk ls /collections -s http://localhost:8983

Create a znode (supports chroot)

Use the zk mkroot command to create a znode with no data. The primary use-case for this command to support ZooKeeper’s "chroot" concept. However, it can also be used to create arbitrary paths.

Create znode Parameters

<path>

Required

Default: none

The path on ZooKeeper to create. Intermediate znodes will be created if necessary. A leading slash is assumed if not present.

Example: /solr

-z <zkHost> or --zk-host <zkHost>

Required

Default: none

The ZooKeeper connection string. Optional if ZK_HOST is defined in solr.in.sh or solr.in.cmd.

Example: -z 123.321.23.43:2181

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Optional

Default: http://localhost:8983

Base Solr URL, which can be used in SolrCloud mode to determine the ZooKeeper connection string if that’s not known.

Examples of this command:

bin/solr zk mkroot /solr -z 123.321.23.43:2181

bin/solr zk mkroot /solr/production

Exporting and Importing

Exporting Documents to a File

The export command will allow you to export documents from a collection in JSON, JSON with Lines, or Javabin format. All documents can be exported, or only those that match a query.

This hasn’t been tested with nested child documents and your results will vary.

The export command only works with in a Solr running in cloud mode.

bin/solr export [options]

bin/solr export --help

The bin/solr export command takes the following parameters:

--url <url>

Required

Default: none

Fully-qualified address to a collection.

Example: --url http://localhost:8983/solr/techproducts

--format <format>

Optional

Default: json

The file format of the export, json, jsonl, or javabin. Choosing javabin exports in the native Solr format, and is compact and fast to import. jsonl is the Json with Lines format, learn more at https://jsonlines.org/.

--out <path>

Optional

Default: see description

Either the path to the directory for the exported data to be written to, or a specific file to be written out.

If only a directory is specified then the file will be created with the name of the collection, as in <collection>.json.

--compress

Optional

Default: false

If you specify --compress then the resulting outputting file with will be gzipped, for example <collection>.json.gz.

--query <query string>

Optional

Default: *:*

A custom query. The default is *:* which will export all documents.

--fields <fields>

Optional

Default: none

Comma separated list of fields to be exported. By default all fields are fetched.

--limit <number of documents>

Optional

Default: 100

Maximum number of docs to download. The value -1 will export all documents.

Examples

Export all documents from a collection gettingstarted:

bin/solr export --url http://localhost:8983/solr/gettingstarted --limit -1

Export all documents of collection gettingstarted into a file called 1MDocs.json.gz as a compressed JSON file:

bin/solr export --url http://localhost:8983/solr/gettingstarted --limit -1 --format json --compress --out 1MDocs

Importing Documents into a Collection

Once you have exported documents in a file, you can use the /update request handler to import them to a new Solr collection.

Example: import json files

First export the documents, making sure to ignore any fields that are populated via a copyField by specifying what fields you want to export:

$ bin/solr export --url http://localhost:8983/solr/gettingstarted --fields id,name,manu,cat,features

Create a new collection to import the exported documents into:

$ bin/solr create_collection -c test_collection -n techproducts

Now import the data with either of these methods:

$ curl -X POST -d @gettingstarted.json 'http://localhost:8983/solr/test_collection/update/json/docs?commit=true'

$ curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -X POST -d @gettingstarted.json 'http://localhost:8983/solr/test_collection/update?commit=true'

Example: import javabin files

$ bin/solr export --url http://localhost:8983/solr/gettingstarted --format javabin --fields id,name,manu,cat,features
$ curl -X POST --header "Content-Type: application/javabin" --data-binary @gettingstarted.javabin 'http://localhost:8983/solr/test_collection/update?commit=true'

Interacting with API

The api command will allow you to send an arbitrary HTTP request to a Solr API endpoint.

bin/solr api --solr-url http://localhost:8983/solr/COLL_NAME/sql?stmt=select+id+from+COLL_NAME+limit+10

bin/solr api --help

The bin/solr api command takes the following parameters:

-url <url> or --solr-url <url>

Required

Default: none

Send a GET request to a Solr API endpoint.

Example: bin/solr api --solr-url http://localhost:8983/solr/COLL_NAME/sql?stmt=select+id+from+COLL_NAME+limit+10

API

The api command will allow you to send an arbitrary HTTP request to a Solr API endpoint. If you have configured basicAuth or TLS with your Solr you may find this easier than using a separate tool like curl.

$ bin/solr api --solr-url http://localhost:8983/solr/techproducts/select?q=*:* -u user:password

Here is an example of sending a SQL query to the techproducts /sql end point (assumes you started Solr in Cloud mode with the SQL module enabled):

$ bin/solr api --solr-url http://localhost:8983/solr/techproducts/sql?stmt=select+id+from+techproducts+limit+10

Results are streamed to the terminal.