Build an Index on Vectors

This guide describes how to build an index on vectors in Milvus.

Vector indexes are an organizational unit of metadata used to accelerate vector similarity search. Without the index built on vectors, Milvus will perform a brute-force search by default.

See Vector Index for more information about the mechanism and varieties of vector indexes.

By default, Milvus does not index a segment with less than 1,024 rows. To change this parameter, configure rootCoord.minSegmentSizeToEnableIndex in milvus.yaml.

The following example builds a 1024-cluster IVF_FLAT index with Euclidean distance (L2) as the similarity metric. You can choose the index and metrics that suit your scenario. See Similarity Metrics for more information.

Prepare index parameter

Prepare the index parameters as follows:

Python Java GO Node.js CLI Curl

index_params = {
  "metric_type":"L2",
  "index_type":"IVF_FLAT",
  "params":{"nlist":1024}
}

const index_params = {
  metric_type: "L2",
  index_type: "IVF_FLAT",
  params: JSON.stringify({ nlist: 1024 }),
};

idx, err := entity.NewIndexIvfFlat(   // NewIndex func
    entity.L2,                        // metricType
    1024,                             // ConstructParams
)
if err != nil {
  log.Fatal("fail to create ivf flat index parameter:", err.Error())
}

final IndexType INDEX_TYPE = IndexType.IVF_FLAT;   // IndexType
final String INDEX_PARAM = "{\"nlist\":1024}";     // ExtraParam

create index

Collection name (book): book

The name of the field to create an index for (book_intro): book_intro

Index type (FLAT, IVF_FLAT, IVF_SQ8, IVF_PQ, RNSG, HNSW, ANNOY): IVF_FLAT

Index metric type (L2, IP, HAMMING, TANIMOTO): L2

Index params nlist: 1024

Timeout []:

curl -X 'POST' \
  'http://localhost:9091/api/v1/index' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "collection_name": "book",
    "field_name": "book_intro",
    "extra_params":[
      {"key": "metric_type", "value": "L2"},
      {"key": "index_type", "value": "IVF_FLAT"},
      {"key": "params", "value": "{\"nlist\":1024}"}
    ]
  }'

Parameter	Description	Options
`metric_type`	Type of metrics used to measure the similarity of vectors.	For floating point vectors: `L2` (Euclidean distance) `IP` (Inner product) For binary vectors: `JACCARD` (Jaccard distance) `TANIMOTO` (Tanimoto distance) `HAMMING` (Hamming distance) `SUPERSTRUCTURE` (Superstructure) `SUBSTRUCTURE` (Substructure)
`index_type`	Type of index used to accelerate the vector search.	For floating point vectors: `FLAT` (FLAT) `IVF_FLAT` (IVF_FLAT) `IVF_SQ8` (IVF_SQ8) `IVF_PQ` (IVF_PQ) `HNSW` (HNSW) `ANNOY` (ANNOY) `DISKANN^*` (DISK_ANN) For binary vectors: `BIN_FLAT` (BIN_FLAT) `BIN_IVF_FLAT` (BIN_IVF_FLAT)
`params`	Building parameter(s) specific to the index.	See In-memory Index and On-disk Index for more information.
* DISKANN has certain prerequisites to meet. For details, see On-disk Index.

Parameter Description Option

metric_type

Type of metrics used to measure the similarity of vectors.

For floating point vectors:

L2 (Euclidean distance)
IP (Inner product)

For binary vectors:

JACCARD (Jaccard distance)
TANIMOTO (Tanimoto distance)
HAMMING (Hamming distance)
SUPERSTRUCTURE (Superstructure)
SUBSTRUCTURE (Substructure)

index_type

Type of index used to accelerate the vector search.

For floating point vectors:

FLAT (FLAT)
IVF_FLAT (IVF_FLAT)
IVF_SQ8 (IVF_SQ8)
IVF_PQ (IVF_PQ)
HNSW (HNSW)
ANNOY (ANNOY)

For binary vectors:

BIN_FLAT (BIN_FLAT)
BIN_IVF_FLAT (BIN_IVF_FLAT)

params Building parameter(s) specific to the index. See In-memory Index and On-disk Index for more information.

Parameter	Description	Options
`NewIndex func`	Function to create entity. Index according to different index types.	For floating point vectors: `NewIndexFlat` (FLAT) `NewIndexIvfFlat` (IVF_FLAT) `NewIndexIvfSQ8` (IVF_SQ8) `NewIndexIvfPQ` (IVF_PQ) `NewIndexHNSW` (HNSW) `NewIndexANNOY` (ANNOY) `NewIndexDISKANN^*` (DISK_ANN) For binary vectors: `NewIndexBinFlat` (BIN_FLAT) `NewIndexBinIvfFlat` (BIN_IVF_FLAT)
`metricType`	Type of metrics used to measure the similarity of vectors.	For floating point vectors: `L2` (Euclidean distance) `IP` (Inner product) For binary vectors: `JACCARD` (Jaccard distance) `TANIMOTO` (Tanimoto distance) `HAMMING` (Hamming distance) `SUPERSTRUCTURE` (Superstructure) `SUBSTRUCTURE` (Substructure)
`ConstructParams`	Building parameter(s) specific to the index.	See In-memory Index and On-disk Index for more information.
* DISKANN has certain prerequisites to meet. For details, see On-disk Index.

Parameter Description Options

Parameter	Description	Options
`IndexType`	Type of index used to accelerate the vector search.	For floating point vectors: `FLAT` (FLAT) `IVF_FLAT` (IVF_FLAT) `IVF_SQ8` (IVF_SQ8) `IVF_PQ` (IVF_PQ) `HNSW` (HNSW) `ANNOY` (ANNOY) `DISKANN^*` (DISK_ANN) For binary vectors: `BIN_FLAT` (BIN_FLAT) `BIN_IVF_FLAT` (BIN_IVF_FLAT)
`ExtraParam`	Building parameter(s) specific to the index.	See In-memory Index and On-disk Index for more information.
* DISKANN has certain prerequisites to meet. For details, see On-disk Index.

IndexType

Type of index used to accelerate the vector search.

For floating point vectors:

FLAT (FLAT)
IVF_FLAT (IVF_FLAT)
IVF_SQ8 (IVF_SQ8)
IVF_PQ (IVF_PQ)
HNSW (HNSW)
ANNOY (ANNOY)
DISKANN^* (DISK_ANN)

For binary vectors:

BIN_FLAT (BIN_FLAT)
BIN_IVF_FLAT (BIN_IVF_FLAT)

ExtraParam Building parameter(s) specific to the index. See In-memory Index and On-disk Index for more information.

* DISKANN has certain prerequisites to meet. For details, see On-disk Index.

Option	Description
--help	Displays help for using the command.

Parameter	Description	Options
`collection_name`	Name of the collection to build the index on.
`field_name`	Name of the vector field to build the index on.
`metric_type`	Type of metrics used to measure the similarity of vectors.	For floating point vectors: `L2` (Euclidean distance) `IP` (Inner product) For binary vectors: `JACCARD` (Jaccard distance) `TANIMOTO` (Tanimoto distance) `HAMMING` (Hamming distance) `SUPERSTRUCTURE` (Superstructure) `SUBSTRUCTURE` (Substructure)
`index_type`	Type of index used to accelerate the vector search.	For floating point vectors: `FLAT` (FLAT) `IVF_FLAT` (IVF_FLAT) `IVF_SQ8` (IVF_SQ8) `IVF_PQ` (IVF_PQ) `HNSW` (HNSW) `ANNOY` (ANNOY) For binary vectors: `BIN_FLAT` (BIN_FLAT) `BIN_IVF_FLAT` (BIN_IVF_FLAT)
`params`	Building parameter(s) specific to the index.	See In-memory Index for more information.

Build index

Build the index by specifying the vector field name and index parameters.

Python Java GO Node.js CLI Curl

from pymilvus import Collection, utility
# Get an existing collection.
collection = Collection("book")      
collection.create_index(
  field_name="book_intro", 
  index_params=index_params
)

utility.index_building_progress("book")
# Output: {'total_rows': 0, 'indexed_rows': 0}

await milvusClient.createIndex({
  collection_name: "book",
  field_name: "book_intro",
  extra_params: index_params,
});

err := milvusClient.CreateIndex(
  context.Background(),        // ctx
  "book",                      // CollectionName
  "book_intro",                // fieldName
  idx,                         // entity.Index
  false,                       // async
)
if err != nil {
  log.Fatal("fail to create index:", err.Error())
}

milvusClient.createIndex(
  CreateIndexParam.newBuilder()
    .withCollectionName("book")
    .withFieldName("book_intro")
    .withIndexType(INDEX_TYPE)
    .withMetricType(MetricType.L2)
    .withExtraParam(INDEX_PARAM)
    .withSyncMode(Boolean.FALSE)
    .build()
);

# Follow the previous step.

# Follow the previous step.

Parameter	Description
`field_name`	Name of the vector field to build index on.
`index_params`	Parameters of the index to build.

Parameter	Description
`collection_name`	Name of the collection to build index in.
`field_name`	Name of the vector field to build index on.
`extra_params`	Parameters of the index to build.

Parameter	Description
`ctx`	Context to control API invocation process.
`CollectionName`	Name of the collection to build index on.
`fieldName`	Name of the vector field to build index on.
`entity.Index`	Parameters of the index to build.
`async`	Switch to control sync/async behavior. The deadline of context is not applied in sync building process.

What's next

Learn more basic operations of Milvus: