Can I change the name of an existing index?

Question

I am undertaking an effort to produce drop/create scripts for our MongoDB deployment. We would like to get to a place where all MongoDB database/collections are structurally identical across our dev, test, and production environments. To this end, we have decided to name the indexes at ensureIndex time. The problem is, how do I update the name of indexes that already exist? What I know doesn't work is just re-running the ensureIndex with a "name" specified like....

// existing indexes, note its name is "groups_1"...
dmReplSet:PRIMARY> db.system.indexes.find();
{ "v" : 1, "key" : { "groups" : 1 }, "ns" : "test.config", "name" : "groups_1" }
...

// attempt to change its name by re-issue ensureIndex command...
dmReplSet:PRIMARY> db.config.ensureIndex( { "groups" : 1 }, { "name" : "config_groups_ix" } );

// Nope, name is still "groups_1"...
dmReplSet:PRIMARY> db.system.indexes.find();
{ "v" : 1, "key" : { "groups" : 1 }, "ns" : "test.config", "name" : "groups_1" }
...

How can I update the name of a mongo index that already exists? Is there any risk in doing this?

I think you'd have to drop the existing index and then re-create it with your desired name. — JohnnyHK
– JohnnyHK, Commented Oct 11, 2012 at 19:21
Thanks, but I'm hoping there is a better way. Two of my production indexes are on a collection thats pretty big; 16 million docs and growing. — Bob Kuhar
– Bob Kuhar, Commented Oct 11, 2012 at 21:24
Ugh. Just checked in with the 10gen guys. @JohnnyHK is correct. You can't rename and index in mongo. You can only drop and recreate it. Sigh. — Bob Kuhar
– Bob Kuhar, Commented Oct 11, 2012 at 22:10
I should add that Mongo 2.2 has this restriction. Who knows what the future may hold. — Bob Kuhar
– Bob Kuhar, Commented Oct 11, 2012 at 22:18
There is now a feature request SERVER-7337 for renaming indexes :) — Stennie
– Stennie, Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 0:33

Bastian Voigt · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-27 08:45:56Z

10

Sadly, this is impossible. The official documentation suggests to drop and recreate the index.

Update: This answer is still valid for MongoDB version 6.0.

edited Jul 27, 2023 at 8:45

answered May 15, 2015 at 9:37

Bastian Voigt

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