# DigitalOcean Managed OpenSearch for Vector Search – DigitalOcean Documentation

> Use DigitalOcean Managed OpenSearch as a vector database with k-NN, hybrid search, and remote embedding models.



## Getting Started with OpenSearch Vector Search

Quickstart guides for using DigitalOcean Managed OpenSearch as a vector database.

- [Vector Search Quickstart](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/getting-started/quickstart/index.html.md): The essentials to go from zero to working in a few minutes.

## DigitalOcean Managed OpenSearch Vector How-Tos

How to create OpenSearch vector clusters, build k-NN indexes, run hybrid searches, and register remote embedding models.

- [How to Create an OpenSearch Vector Database Cluster](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/how-to/create/index.html.md): Create an OpenSearch vector database cluster, add trusted sources, and configure connection details.
- [How to Create a k-NN Index](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/how-to/create-knn-index/index.html.md): Create and configure a k-NN index for vector search in OpenSearch.
- [How to Update and Delete Vectors](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/how-to/edit-vectors/index.html.md): Update or delete documents with vector embeddings in an OpenSearch k-NN index.
- [How to Index Vectors](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/how-to/index-vectors/index.html.md): Add single documents or bulk datasets with vector embeddings to an OpenSearch k-NN index.
- [How to Register a Remote Embedding Model with ML Commons](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/how-to/register-model/index.html.md): Configure OpenSearch to call a remote embedding provider with ML Commons.
- [How to Query with Vector Search](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/how-to/use-vector-search/index.html.md): Run k-NN, filtered k-NN, and exact k-NN queries against OpenSearch vector indexes.
- [How to Query with Hybrid Search](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/how-to/use-hybrid-search/index.html.md): Query OpenSearch with hybrid search to combine keyword and vector relevance.

## OpenSearch Vector Search Concepts

Background reading on vector embeddings, HNSW, engines, hybrid search, and where embeddings come from, specific to DigitalOcean Managed OpenSearch.

- [Best Practices for OpenSearch Vector Search](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/concepts/vector-search/index.html.md): Understand OpenSearch-specific vector search concepts, including k-NN engines, filtering, index tuning, and when to use OpenSearch for vector workloads.
- [Best Practices for OpenSearch Hybrid Search](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/concepts/hybrid-search/index.html.md): Tune OpenSearch hybrid search with search pipelines, candidate counts, filters, sub-query design, and representative relevance tests.
- [Score Normalization Best Practices](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/concepts/score-normalization/index.html.md): Understand how OpenSearch normalizes and combines keyword and vector scores in hybrid search.
- [k-NN Index Best Practices](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/vector-databases/opensearch/concepts/knn-index/index.html.md): Best practices for choosing k-NN engines, space types, HNSW parameters, shards, replicas, and refresh intervals for OpenSearch vector indexes.