How to Create OpenSearch Clusters

Validated on 7 Apr 2026 • Last edited on 16 Apr 2026

OpenSearch is an open-source search and analytics suite which serves as a centralized location to manage logs forwarded from other resources, such as databases and Droplets.

You can create an OpenSearch cluster using doctl, the API, or the Control Panel.

We currently support OpenSearch versions 1 and 2.19. To view available major versions for new clusters, use the /v2/databases/options response.

Create a Database Cluster Using the CLI

To create a database using doctl, you need to provide values for the --engine, --region, and --size flags. Use the doctl databases options engines, doctl databases options regions, and doctl databases options slugs commands, respectively, to get a list of available values.

How to Create a Database Using the DigitalOcean CLI
  1. Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.
  2. Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.
  3. Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.
    doctl auth init
  4. Finally, run doctl databases create. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:
    doctl databases create <name> [flags]
    The following example creates a database cluster named example-database in the nyc1 region with a single 1 GB node:
    doctl databases create example-database --region nyc1 --size db-s-1vcpu-1gb --num-nodes 1

Create a Database Cluster Using the API

To create a database using the API, you need to provide values for the engine, region, and size fields, which specify the database’s engine, its datacenter, and its configuration (number of CPUs, amount of RAM, and hard disk space). Use the /v2/databases/options endpoint to get a list of available values.

How to Create a Database Using the DigitalOcean API
  1. Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.
  2. Send a POST request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/databases.

cURL

Using cURL:

curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"name": "backend", "engine": "pg", "version": "14", "region": "nyc3", "size": "db-s-2vcpu-4gb", "num_nodes": 2, "storage_size_mib": 61440, "tags": ["production"], "do_settings": {"service_cnames": ["db.example.com", "database.myapp.io"]}}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/databases"

Go

Using Godo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Go:

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    createRequest := &godo.DatabaseCreateRequest{
        Name:       "backend",
        EngineSlug: "pg",
        Version:    "14",
        Region:     "nyc3",
        SizeSlug:   "db-s-2vcpu-4gb",
        NumNodes:   2,
        StorageSizeMiB : 61440,
        DOSettings: &godo.DOSettings{
            ServiceCnames: []string{"db.example.com", "database.myapp.io"},
        },
    }

    cluster, _, err := client.Databases.Create(ctx, createRequest)
}

Python

Using PyDo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Python:

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

create_req = {
  "name": "backend",
  "engine": "pg",
  "version": "14",
  "region": "nyc3",
  "size": "db-s-2vcpu-4gb",
  "num_nodes": 2,
  "storage_size_mib": 61440,
  "tags": [
    "production"
  ],
  "do_settings": {
    "service_cnames": [
      "db.example.com",
      "database.myapp.io"
    ]
  }
}

create_resp = client.databases.create_cluster(body=create_req)

Create a Database Cluster Using the Control Panel

To create a database cluster, go to the Databases page, then click Create Database. Or click Create at the top of any page and choose Databases.

Choose a Database Engine

On the Create Database Cluster page, under Choose a database engine, select OpenSearch and choose a version if available. The database engine and version can't be changed after creation.

The database engine selection portion of the database create page

Choose a Database Configuration

In the Choose a database configuration section, select one of the following options:

  • Basic - Shared CPU: CPU processing power is shared among neighboring Droplets on the same host. Best for low-traffic or development workloads.

  • General Purpose - Dedicated CPU: Provides the full processing power of a single vCPU at all times. Best for most workloads that need consistent CPU performance.

  • Memory-Optimized - Dedicated CPU: Provides the full processing power of a single vCPU at all times. Best for memory-heavy workloads with large working sets and demanding read-heavy or analytics-style queries.

Under Select a plan, choose an option. Each option shows its combined monthly cost and included resources, such as vCPUs and memory. For Basic plans (except the smallest, 1 vCPU / 2 GiB RAM / 40 GiB), you can choose 1 or 3 nodes. For General Purpose and Memory-Optimized plans, you can choose 1, 3, 6, 9, or 15 nodes.

After creation, you can increase your cluster's compute size (number or size of nodes) at any time.

Choose a Storage Size

In the Choose a storage size section, you can increase storage in 10 GiB increments, up to the maximum shown under Storage range. Additional storage you add to the cluster costs $0.21 per GiB per month.

You can increase or decrease storage at any time, but you cannot reduce it below the amount currently in use (or below what's required by backups and growth).

In the Autoscale storage section, select Enable Storage Autoscaling to automatically increase storage when disk utilization on any node in the cluster reaches the specified threshold. The threshold is based on the worst-performing node in the cluster, not the average across nodes. Click Customize to set a custom threshold and storage increment. The system bills this increase as additional storage.

The storage autoscaling section

Autoscaling takes several minutes, depending on the cluster size. It runs without downtime and you do not need to take any action.

Note
When autoscaling occurs, the specified storage increment is added to each node in the cluster, not distributed across the cluster. Even when data is uneven across nodes, such as with different partition sizes, each node still receives the same increment. The total added storage is approximately the increment multiplied by the number of nodes.

Choose a Datacenter Region

In the Choose a datacenter region section, select a datacenter for your cluster.

The datacenter selection portion of the databases create page

The list shows the datacenters where you currently have the most resources, with the number of resources shown to the right as X resources. Hover over this text to see the specific resources in that datacenter.

For the best performance, create your database in the same datacenter as your other DigitalOcean resources. After creation, you can relocate your cluster to another datacenter.

Note
Each region has one or more datacenters, each with its own VPC network. Keeping resources in the same datacenter ensures they share the private networking interface, which reduces latency and prevents traffic from being routed over the public internet.

Finalize and Create

In the Finalize and Create section, enter a unique name for the cluster and select a project to add it to. After creation, you can move the cluster to another project, but its name can't be changed.

The Finalize and Create section of the Create a database page

When finished, click Create Database Cluster.

Clusters typically take five minutes or more to provision, but you can complete important configuration tasks such as restricting inbound connections while you wait.

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