# Circuit Breaker limit definition question

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 5, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246 "2016-05-05T02:21:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rural\_Hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9a140/32.png) [@Rural\_Hunter](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rural_Hunter)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246/1 "2016-05-05T02:21:50Z")

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I have read [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/\_limiting\_memory\_usage.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/_limiting_memory_usage.html) and understood what is curcuit breaker. But the meaning of the curcuit breaker settings such as indices.breaker.total.limit is still unclear to me. Is this a limit of estimated memory usage of a single incoming query, or it's the limit of the current memory usage plus the estimated memory usage of the incoming query?

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**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:** [May 5, 2016, 3:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246/2 "2016-05-05T03:37:18Z")

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> The total circuit breaker wraps the request and fielddata circuit breakers to ensure that the combination of the two doesn’t use more than 70% of the heap by default.

It's the incoming request and also the existing (fielddata) cache.

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**Author:** ![Rural\_Hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9a140/32.png) [@Rural\_Hunter](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rural_Hunter)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246/3 "2016-05-05T04:20:56Z")

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Thanks but that's not what I was asking. I meant:  
indices.breaker.fielddata.limit = existing field data memory + estimated new field data memory requirement  
or  
indices.breaker.fielddata.limit = estimated new field data memory requirement  
?

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**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:** [May 5, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246/4 "2016-05-05T04:37:06Z")

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> [@Rural\_Hunter](#):
>
> indices.breaker.fielddata.limit = existing field data memory + estimated new field data memory requirement

This one.

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**Author:** ![Rural\_Hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9a140/32.png) [@Rural\_Hunter](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rural_Hunter)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 5:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246/5 "2016-05-05T05:41:12Z")

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OK, thanks!

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/circuit-breaker-limit-definition-question/49246/6 "2017-07-05T22:53:52Z")

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