Docs: highlights of the 7.7 release

docs/reference/release-notes/highlights-7.7.0.asciidoc

@@ -18,3 +18,112 @@ pivot and summarize your data and store it in a new index. See
 {ref}//transform-apis.html[{transform-cap} APIs].
 
 // end::notable-highlights[]
+
+// tag::notable-highlights[]
+[float]
+=== Finer memory control for bucket aggregations
+
+We introduced a new `search.check_buckets_step_size` setting to
+better control how the coordinating node allocates memory when aggregating
+buckets. The allocation of buckets is now be done in steps, each step
+allocating a number of buckets equal to this setting. To avoid an `OutOfMemory`
+error, a parent circuit breaker check is performed on allocation.
+
+// end::notable-highlights[]
+
+// tag::notable-highlights[]
+[float]
+=== A new way of searching: asynchronously
+
+You can now submit {ref}/async-search-intro.html[long-running searches] using
+the new {ref}/async-search.html[`_async_search` API]. The new API accepts the
+same parameters and request body as the {ref}/search-search.html[Search API].
+However, instead of blocking and returning the final response only when it's 
+entirely finished, you can retrieve results from an async search as they become 
+available.
+
+The request takes a parameter, `wait_for_completion`, which controls how long
+the server will wait until it sends back a response. The first response
+contains among others a search unique ID, a response version, an indication if
+this response is partial or not, plus the usual metadata (shards involved,
+number of hits etc) and potentially results. If the response is not complete
+and final, the client can continue polling for results, issuing a new request
+using the provided search ID. If new results are available, the returned
+version is incremented and the new batch of results are returned. This can 
+continue until all the results are fetched.
+
+Unless deleted earlier by the user, the asynchronous searches are kept alive
+for a given interval. This defaults to 5 days and can be controlled by another
+request parameter, `keep_alive`.
+// end::notable-highlights[]
+
+// tag::notable-highlights[]
+[float]
+=== Password protection for the keystore
+
+{es} uses a custom on-disk {ref}/secure-settings.html[keystore] for secure settings such as
+passwords and SSL certificates. Up until now, this prevented users with
+{ref}/elasticsearch-keystore.html[command-line access] from viewing secure files by listing commands, but nothing
+prevented such users from changing values in the keystore, or removing values
+from it. Furthermore, the values were only obfuscated by a hash; no
+user-specific secret protected the secure settings.
+
+This new feature changes all of that by adding password-protection to the
+keystore. This is not be a breaking change: if a keystore has no password,
+there won’t be any new prompts. A user must choose to password-protect their
+keystore in order to benefit from the new behavior.
+
+// end::notable-highlights[]
+
+// tag::notable-highlights[]
+[float]
+=== A new aggregation: `top_metrics`
+
+The new {ref}//search-aggregations-metrics-top-metrics.html[`top_metrics` aggregation] "selects" a metric from a document according
+to a criteria on a given, different field. That criteria is currently the
+largest or smallest "sort" value. It is fairly similar to `top_hits` in spirit,
+but because it is more limited, `top_metrics` uses less memory and
+is often faster.
+
+// end::notable-highlights[]
+
+// tag::notable-highlights[]
+[float]
+=== Query speed-up for sorted queries on time-based indices
+
+We've optimized sorted, top-documents-only queries run on time-based indices.
+The optimization stems from the fact that the ranges of (document) timestamps
+in the shards don't overlap. It is implemented by rewriting the shard search
+requests based on the partial results already available from other shards, if
+it can be determined that the query will not yield any result from the current
+shard; i.e. we know in advance that the bottom entry of the (sorted) result set
+after a partial merge is better than the values contained in this current
+shard.
+
+// end::notable-highlights[]
+
+// tag::notable-highlights[]
+[float]
+=== A new aggregation: `boxplot`
+
+The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interquartile_range[interquartile range (IQR)] is a common robust measure of statistical dispersion.
+Compared to the standard deviation, the IQR is less sensitive to outliers in
+the data, with a breakdown point of 0.25. Along with the median, it is often
+used in creating a box plot, a simple yet common way to summarize data and
+identify potential outliers.
+
+The new {ref}/search-aggregations-metrics-boxplot-aggregation.html[`boxplot`
+aggregation] calculates the min, max, and medium as well as the first and third
+quartiles of a given data set.
+
+// end::notable-highlights[]
+
+// tag::notable-highlights[]
+[float]
+=== AArch64 support
+
+{es} now provides AArch64 packaging, including bundling an AArch64 JDK
+distribution. There are some restrictions in place, namely no {ml} support and
+depending on underlying page sizes, class data sharing is disabled.
+
+// end::notable-highlights[]