# Bulk insert vs Single insert **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [October 10, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bulk-insert-vs-single-insert/20184 "2014-10-10T16:35:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mike\_giardinelli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@mike\_giardinelli](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mike_giardinelli)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bulk-insert-vs-single-insert/20184/1 "2014-10-10T16:35:18Z")
Hi All, The primary dev managing our ES cluster has made the statement that single document writes to ES will only provide us with roughly 30 / 40 writes a second. Whereas the bulk operations will give us more in the range of a 1,000+. I realize that bulk is always faster (or is generally) and there are hardware / environment constraints to any process. However, with other technologies you do not pay such a heavy price for single insertions. I am obviously ignorant when it comes to ES, but why do you pay such a heavy price for document writes in ES? Or are we just not properly informed? Environment: - Apache Storm writes to our ES cluster - Currently all of the writes are processed in bulk operations. ES Configuration: - ## 11 data nodes 2x AMD Opteron(TM) Processor 6272 (16 cores @ 2.1/3.0 GHz, 16 MB L3 cache) - 256 GB RAM - 12 TB (7200 RPM platter disks in LVM ext4 configuration) - ES configuration Any information / suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8ad4c98d-34ca-4205-b763-88e1392cf57c%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8ad4c98d-34ca-4205-b763-88e1392cf57c%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 8:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bulk-insert-vs-single-insert/20184/2 "2014-10-11T08:56:50Z")
From what I understand (which may not be 100% right), most of the overhead is with generating and dealing with the HTTP request as it's a heavy operation. Regards, Mark Walkom Infrastructure Engineer Campaign Monitor email: [markw@campaignmonitor.com](mailto:markw@campaignmonitor.com) web: [www.campaignmonitor.com](http://www.campaignmonitor.com) On 11 October 2014 03:35, [mike.giardinelli@gmail.com](mailto:mike.giardinelli@gmail.com) wrote: > Hi All, > > The primary dev managing our ES cluster has made the statement that single > document writes to ES will only provide us with roughly 30 / 40 writes a > second. Whereas the bulk operations will give us more in the range of a > 1,000+. I realize that bulk is always faster (or is generally) and there > are hardware / environment constraints to any process. However, with other > technologies you do not pay such a heavy price for single insertions. I am > obviously ignorant when it comes to ES, but why do you pay such a heavy > price for document writes in ES? Or are we just not properly informed? > > Environment: > > - Apache Storm writes to our ES cluster > - Currently all of the writes are processed in bulk operations. > > ES Configuration: > > - > ## 11 data nodes > > 2x AMD Opteron(TM) Processor 6272 (16 cores @ 2.1/3.0 GHz, 16 MB L3 > cache) > > - 256 GB RAM > - 12 TB (7200 RPM platter disks in LVM ext4 configuration) > > - ES configuration > > Any information / suggestions would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks! > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8ad4c98d-34ca-4205-b763-88e1392cf57c%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8ad4c98d-34ca-4205-b763-88e1392cf57c%40googlegroups.com) > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8ad4c98d-34ca-4205-b763-88e1392cf57c%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8ad4c98d-34ca-4205-b763-88e1392cf57c%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > . > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAEM624bveakO%2B\_-SCt7LLJJQeCeQ9zuiJzmpa6pm1azAga%2BP8Q%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAEM624bveakO%2B_-SCt7LLJJQeCeQ9zuiJzmpa6pm1azAga%2BP8Q%40mail.gmail.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bulk-insert-vs-single-insert/20184/3 "2017-07-06T00:56:53Z")