All settings listed in the update settings API (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-update-settings.html) can be changed on a running indices. To make changes like the merge policy (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/index-modules-merge.html) the index has to be closed first and reopened after the call
 protected function verifySettings(Settings $settings)
 {
     $this->assertEquals('2', $settings->get('number_of_shards'));
     $this->assertEquals('0', $settings->get('number_of_replicas'));
 }