# Adjusting number of replica shards?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 4, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232 "2016-08-04T14:37:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Steve\_Suh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Steve_Suh)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232/1 "2016-08-04T14:37:57Z")
Can I just the number of replica shards after index creation and the index starts taking documents? Can I increase and decrease as well?
For our staging, I currently have 1 and I want to reduce it to 0. Will that automatically remove the replica shard if I change the number of replicas?
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### Author:  [@tanguy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tanguy)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232/2 "2016-08-04T14:39:31Z")
Hi,
> [@Steve\_Suh](#):
>
> Can I just the number of replica shards after index creation and the index starts taking documents? Can I increase and decrease as well?
Yes
> [@Steve\_Suh](#):
>
> For our staging, I currently have 1 and I want to reduce it to 0. Will that automatically remove the replica shard if I change the number of replicas?
And yes!
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Suh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Steve_Suh)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232/3 "2016-08-04T14:40:34Z")
Thanks. I wanted to test it out on staging first before I try it on production. Thanks for the super ultra fast response!
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### Author:  [@tanguy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tanguy)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232/4 "2016-08-04T14:42:10Z")
> [@Steve\_Suh](#):
>
> I wanted to test it out on staging first before I try it on production.
Sure. Adding replicas can have a cost: files need to be created, shards need to be allocated to a node, then files need to be sent over the wire etc. This is not a lightweight process but you can change the replica number even after the index created.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Suh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Steve_Suh)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232/5 "2016-08-04T15:25:24Z")
If I go from 1 to 0 will Elasticsearch free up the resources from the replica shard?
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### Author:  [@tanguy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tanguy)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232/6 "2016-08-04T15:26:39Z")
Yes, of course.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adjusting-number-of-replica-shards/57232/7 "2017-07-05T22:30:03Z")