Title: Activate Enterprise Search
Author: WordPress VIP Documentation
Published: March 10, 2021
Last modified: October 7, 2025

---

 1. [Enterprise Search](https://docs.wpvip.com/enterprise-search/)
 2. Activate Enterprise Search

#  Activate Enterprise Search

Enterprise Search is an [Integration](https://docs.wpvip.com/integrations/) that
must be  [added to an organization](https://docs.wpvip.com/integrations/center/add-an-integration/)
in order to be available to an application and its environments. Once added, Enterprise
Search can be activated from within [the App Integrations panel](https://docs.wpvip.com/integrations/app-integrations/)
of the VIP Dashboard. After activation, an Elasticsearch (ES) index must be created
for a site’s content with VIP-CLI commands.

**Note**

If any other variants of Elasticsearch-backed functionality such as [Jetpack Search](https://docs.wpvip.com/wordpress-on-vip/search-options/jetpack-search/)
or the [es-wp-query](https://github.com/alleyinteractive/es-wp-query) adapter exist
in the application codebase, disable or remove that code entirely. Enterprise Search
uses forks of es-wp-query and ElasticPress that are loaded automatically. No other
Elasticsearch-backed functionality can be supported while Enterprise Search is enabled.

**Prerequisites**

 * To be available for configuration, the Enterprise Search Integration must already
   be added to an application’s organization.
 * To access and manage settings in the **App Integrations** panel, a user must 
   have an [App admin role](https://docs.wpvip.com/manage-user-access/vip-dashboard/app-role/)
   for an application or an [Org admin role](https://docs.wpvip.com/manage-user-access/vip-dashboard/org-roles/).

 1.  Navigate to the [VIP Dashboard](https://dashboard.wpvip.com/) for an application.
 2.  Select “**Integrations**” from the sidebar navigation at the left of the screen.
 3.   * Integration activation is environment-specific. If needed, select a different
        environment (e.g., staging, develop) from the dropdown located at the upper
        left of the VIP Dashboard application view.
 4.  Locate Enterprise Search in the list of Integrations in the **App Integrations**
     panel.
 5.  On the right-hand side of the Enterprise Search row, select the linked text with
     the value “**Configure**” to access [the **Configure Integration** panel](https://docs.wpvip.com/integrations/app-integrations/configure-integration/).
 6.  In the section labeled “**Activate Integration**“ on [the Configure Integration panel](https://docs.wpvip.com/integrations/app-integrations/configure-integration/),
     activate Enterprise Search for the environment by toggling the switch to “Active”(
     green background with a white check mark).
 7.   * For WordPress multisite environments, an additional toggle option is provided
        to allow the Enterprise Search Integration to be activated network-wide or 
        per network site.
 8.  After activating the Enterprise Search Integration, a series of VIP-CLI commands
     are generated to create an ES index and test its health. **Step 1** in the series
     of commands creates the new index. **Step 2** and **Step 3** verify that the Enterprise
     Search Integration is working as intended for a site before fully enabling it 
     for all search queries. Sites that are already launched and serving traffic can
     avoid search downtime by completing one or both of these basic tests before fully
     enabling Enterprise Search.
 9.   * On WordPress multisite environments, the [commands must be run per network site](https://docs.wpvip.com/enterprise-search/multisite/).
 10. When the ES index creation and health check is complete, begin sending search 
     queries to Enterprise Search by toggling the switch labeled “**Offload Search 
     Queries**” to “Active” (green background with a white check mark).

PHP warnings, issued notices, or other signs of conflicts can be monitored with 
debugging tools such as [Query Monitor](https://docs.wpvip.com/query-monitor/) and
[Runtime Logs](https://docs.wpvip.com/runtime-logs/).

## Test offloading of search queries

In addition to the command provided in **Step 3** in the Configure Integration panel,
the offloading of search queries to the Enterprise Search index can be tested with
other methods before toggling the switch labeled “**Offload Search Queries**” to“
Active”

### URL parameter string

The parameter string `vip-search-enabled=1` can be appended to a site’s URL to test
the offloading of search queries to Enterprise Search.

To test offloading, search for a term on a site with Enterprise Search enabled. 
Append the parameter to the URL in the browser’s address bar and reload the browser.
For example:

    ```wp-block-preformatted
    https://example.com/?s=<search-term>&vip-search-enabled=1
    ```

For the search term `tomato`, the URL would be structured similar to this example:

    ```wp-block-preformatted
    https://example.com/?s=tomato&vip-search-enabled=1
    ```

Refer to results in [the Enterprise Dev Tools panel](https://docs.wpvip.com/enterprise-search/dev-tools/)
to verify that search is successfully being offloaded to Enterprise Search.

### HTTP response header

Search requests that are successfully offloaded to Enterprise Search will return
a `X-ElasticPress-Query: true` response header.

This is also true for requests made to a WP REST API search endpoint that are successfully
offloaded to Enterprise Search. For example: `https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/
search?search=<search-term>`.

Last updated: October 07, 2025