create_alias()

This operation creates an alias for an existing collection.

Request Syntax

create_alias(
    collection_name: str,
    alias: str,
    using: str,
    timeout: float | None
)

PARAMETERS:

• collection_name (str) -

  [REQUIRED]

  The name of the collection to create an alias for.

• alias (str) -

  [REQUIRED]

  The alias of the collection. Before this operation, ensure that the alias does not already exist. If it does, exceptions will occur.

  what is a collection alias?

  A collection alias is an additional name for a collection. Collection aliases are useful when you want to switch your application to a new collection without any changes to your code.

  In MilvusZilliz Cloud, a collection alias is a globally unique identifier. One alias can only be assigned to exactly one collection. Conversely, a collection can have multiple aliases.

  Suppose there is one collection: collection_1. You can assign two different aliases (bob and tom) to this collection by calling create_alias("collection_1", “bob”) and create_alias("collection_1", “tom”).

• using (str) -

  The alias of the employed connection.

  The default value is default, indicating that this operation employs the default connection.

• timeout (float | None)

  The timeout duration for this operation. Setting this to None indicates that this operation timeouts when any response arrives or any error occurs.

RETURN TYPE:

NoneType

RETURNS:

None

EXCEPTIONS:

• MilvusException

  This exception will be raised when any error occurs during this operation, especially when you set alias to an existing alias.

• BaseException

  This exception will be raised when this operation fails.

Examples

from pymilvus import connections, Collection, utility

# Connection to localhost:19530
connections.connect()

# Get an existing collection
collection_1 = Collection("collection_1")

# Create an alias for collection_1
utility.create_alias(collection_name="collection_1", alias="bob")

# List aliases for the collection
utility.list_aliases(collection_name="collection_1") # ['bob']

# Create another alias for collection_1
utility.create_alias(collection_name="collection_1", alias="tom")

# List aliases for the collection
utility.list_aliases(collection_name="collection_1") # ['bob', 'tom']

Related operations

The following operations are related to create_alias():

• alter_alias()

• drop_alias()

• list_aliases()