Elasticsearch has published the release of elasticsearch-py 7.14.0, the official Python client library, with a change to block connectivity to servers that do not use the original commercial Elasticsearch platform. The client library will now throw an error if the other side uses a product that does not appear as "Elasticsearch" in the "X-Elastic-Product" header for new releases, or does not pass the tagline and build_flavor fields for older versions.
The elasticsearch-py library continues to be released under the Apache 2.0 license, but its functionality is now limited to being able to connect to commercial Elasticsearch products. According to Amazon, the blocking affects not only the forks of Open Distro for Elasticsearch and OpenSearch, but also solutions based on open versions of Elasticsearch. Similar changes are expected to be included in the client libraries for JavaScript and Hadoop.
Elasticsearch's actions are the result of a conflict with cloud providers that provide Elasticsearch as cloud services, but do not purchase a commercial version of the product. Elasticsearch is unhappy with the fact that cloud providers who are not connected with the project, reselling ready-made open solutions, benefit, and the developers themselves are left with nothing.
Initially, Elasticsearch tried to change the situation by moving the platform to the non-free SSPL (Server Side Public License) and stopping publishing changes under the old Apache 2.0 license. The SSPL is recognized by the OSI (Open Source Initiative) as non-compliant with the Open Source criteria due to discriminatory requirements. Although the SSPL license is based on AGPLv3, the text contains additional requirements for delivery under the SSPL license not only of the application code itself, but also of the source code of all components involved in providing the cloud service.
But this step only aggravated the situation and the joint efforts of Amazon, Red Hat, SAP, Capital One and Logz.io created a fork of OpenSearch, positioned as a full-fledged open solution developed with the participation of the community. OpenSearch was recognized as production-ready and capable of replacing the Elasticsearch search, analysis, and data storage platform and the Kibana web interface, including by offering a replacement for commercial Elasticsearch components.
Elasticsearch escalated the conflict and decided to make life difficult for users of forks by linking to their products, taking advantage of the fact that the client libraries remained under its control (the license for the libraries remained open and the OpenSearch fork continued to use them to ensure compatibility and ease the transition of users).
In response to Elasticsearch's actions, Amazon announced that the OpenSearch project will start developing forks of 12 existing client libraries and offer a solution for migrating client systems to them. Until the forks are published, users are advised to wait with the transition to new releases of client libraries, and if an update is installed, roll back to the previous version.
Source: opennet.ru