OpenSearch Migration at Scale

The problem

Search infrastructure underpinned critical internal workflows. Staying on a moving ElasticSearch footprint while meeting security and identity requirements meant a coordinated migration, not a weekend config flip.

What I led

Migration from ElasticSearch to OpenSearch, including Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO), replication planning, and staged rollouts across development, test, and production. Each environment validated before the next inherited the change. Zero-surprise cutovers.

Why it mattered

Search clusters are deceptively central. A bad migration does not just break search. It breaks dashboards, log analytics, and teams that assumed the index would always be there. Treating it like a product launch (with rollback paths and explicit verification) was non-negotiable.

What I took away

Large infrastructure migrations are as much coordination and communication as technical execution. Identity, data replication, and environment parity determined whether the project felt smooth or chaotic.

For a smaller homelab take on search fundamentals, see Search API (planned).