# Elastic Mapping explosion

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-mapping-explosion/162647>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 2, 2019, 12:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-mapping-explosion/162647 "2019-01-02T12:03:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

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**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-mapping-explosion/162647/7 "2019-01-02T13:53:07Z")

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> [@Nikesh](#):
>
> How/Where is mapping stored within Elastic?

In the "cluster state" which is shared with every node.

> [@Nikesh](#):
>
> How much of overhead does it cause on disk and RAM?

A small part of the overhead is fixed (the set of fields definitions in cluster state) and the larger part varies with the number of documents in the index. More fields = more entries in the search index data structures and RAM-based caches.

> [@Nikesh](#):
>
> - But I have a situation where I have to store 1500 fields.
> - Is there any alternative to this mapping explosion prevention?

See [Mapping | Elasticsearch Guide [8.11] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping.html#mapping-limit-settings)  
Example use [here](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/total-fields-limit-setting/53004/2)

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