# Automatic skipping of indexes / shards for date-based indexing and index sorting **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [October 25, 2022, 11:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/automatic-skipping-of-indexes-shards-for-date-based-indexing-and-index-sorting/317399 "2022-10-25T11:20:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jojo23](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jojo23/32/72498_2.png) [@jojo23](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jojo23)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 11:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/automatic-skipping-of-indexes-shards-for-date-based-indexing-and-index-sorting/317399/1 "2022-10-25T11:20:15Z")
I run an Elasticsearch cluster with dozens of time-based monthly indexes and 240+ shards. Query performance is always a priority, so I have been wondering if there are ways to improve which indexes / shards are actually queried. I already tried looking for documentation and Github tickets to no avail. Specifically, this is my situation: - The indexes use index sorting, by date:desc,key:asc. - All queries only ever sort by those sort keys as well. - All queries are run in filter mode using the query string query. - All queries have a track\_total\_hits of 10000. - Some queries also query for the date (e.g. date:\>now-1h) Whenever I run a query it always seems to query all 240+ shards, and there are never skipped shards in the result. I was hoping for two things: - Non-matching indexes / shards should be skipped according to a date filter in the query string - Older indexes / shards should not be queried if the query has already reached 10000 results from the most recent monthly index. I hope this question makes sense. I've tried playing with the max\_concurrent\_shard\_requests and pre\_filter\_shard\_size parameters to no avail. ---
**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 11:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/automatic-skipping-of-indexes-shards-for-date-based-indexing-and-index-sorting/317399/2 "2022-10-25T11:33:12Z")
Which version of Elasticsearch are you using? ---
**Author:** ![jojo23](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jojo23/32/72498_2.png) [@jojo23](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jojo23)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 11:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/automatic-skipping-of-indexes-shards-for-date-based-indexing-and-index-sorting/317399/3 "2022-10-25T11:37:45Z")
Version 8.4.2 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 11:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/automatic-skipping-of-indexes-shards-for-date-based-indexing-and-index-sorting/317399/4 "2022-11-22T11:37:49Z")
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