diff --git a/install/requirements_py3.11.txt b/install/requirements_py3.11.txt
index 0ae328a6f..be01230e7 100644
--- a/install/requirements_py3.11.txt
+++ b/install/requirements_py3.11.txt
@@ -24,4 +24,5 @@ scikit-learn
 pymilvus
 clickhouse_connect
 pyvespa
-mysql-connector-python
\ No newline at end of file
+mysql-connector-python
+packaging
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/vectordb_bench/backend/clients/oss_opensearch/oss_opensearch.py b/vectordb_bench/backend/clients/oss_opensearch/oss_opensearch.py
index 091b8ff45..d0ad3a61f 100644
--- a/vectordb_bench/backend/clients/oss_opensearch/oss_opensearch.py
+++ b/vectordb_bench/backend/clients/oss_opensearch/oss_opensearch.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 from typing import Any, Final
 
 from opensearchpy import OpenSearch
+from packaging.version import Version
+from packaging.version import parse as parse_version
 
 from vectordb_bench.backend.filter import Filter, FilterOp
 
@@ -17,6 +19,16 @@
 WAITING_FOR_FORCE_MERGE_SEC: Final[int] = 30
 SECONDS_WAITING_FOR_REPLICAS_TO_BE_ENABLED_SEC: Final[int] = 30
 
+# Central registry for version-dependent OpenSearch index settings.
+# Add new rules here to automatically support future versions.
+VERSION_SPECIFIC_SETTING_RULES = [
+    {
+        "name": "knn.advanced.approximate_threshold",
+        "applies": lambda version, _: version >= Version("3.0"),
+        "value": lambda _: "-1",
+    },
+]
+
 
 class OpenSearchError(Exception):
     """Custom exception for OpenSearch operations."""
@@ -216,10 +228,39 @@ def need_normalize_cosine(self) -> bool:
         """Whether this database needs to normalize dataset to support COSINE metric."""
         return True
 
+    def _get_cluster_version(self, client: OpenSearch) -> Version:
+        """
+        Return the OpenSearch cluster version as a comparable Version object.
+        Raises an exception if the version cannot be determined.
+        """
+        try:
+            info = client.info()
+            raw_version_str = info.get("version", {}).get("number", "")
+            if not raw_version_str:
+                raise ValueError("Received empty version string from OpenSearch")  # noqa: TRY301
+            cluster_version = parse_version(raw_version_str)
+            log.debug(f"Detected OpenSearch version: {cluster_version}")
+            return cluster_version  # noqa: TRY300
+        except Exception:
+            log.exception("Failed to determine OpenSearch version")
+            raise
+
     def _get_settings_manager(self, client: OpenSearch) -> OpenSearchSettingsManager:
         """Get settings manager for the given client."""
         return OpenSearchSettingsManager(client, self.index_name)
 
+    def _get_version_specific_settings(self, cluster_version: Version) -> dict:
+        """
+        Builds and returns a dictionary of applicable version-specific settings.
+        """
+        version_specific_settings = {}
+        for setting in VERSION_SPECIFIC_SETTING_RULES:
+            if setting["applies"](cluster_version, self.case_config):
+                name = setting["name"]
+                value = setting["value"](self.case_config)
+                version_specific_settings[name] = value
+        return version_specific_settings
+
     def _get_bulk_manager(self, client: OpenSearch) -> BulkInsertManager:
         """Get bulk insert manager for the given client."""
         return BulkInsertManager(client, self.index_name, self.case_config)
@@ -241,18 +282,24 @@ def _create_index(self, client: OpenSearch) -> None:
         settings_manager.apply_cluster_settings(
             cluster_settings, "Successfully updated cluster settings for index creation"
         )
+        # Base settings that are safe for all versions
         settings = {
             "index": {
                 "knn": True,
                 "number_of_shards": self.case_config.number_of_shards,
                 "number_of_replicas": self.case_config.number_of_replicas,
                 "translog.flush_threshold_size": self.case_config.flush_threshold_size,
-                "knn.advanced.approximate_threshold": "-1",
                 "replication.type": self.case_config.replication_type,
             },
             "refresh_interval": self.case_config.refresh_interval,
         }
         settings["index"]["knn.algo_param.ef_search"] = ef_search_value
+
+        version_specific_settings = self._get_version_specific_settings(self._get_cluster_version(client))
+        if version_specific_settings:
+            log.info(f"Applying version-dependent settings: {version_specific_settings}")
+            settings["index"].update(version_specific_settings)
+
         # Build properties mapping, excluding _id which is automatically handled by OpenSearch
         properties = {}