# Feedback request: Configuration of ES on a single host **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [September 12, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002 "2012-09-12T14:50:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sebastien_lavoie1/32/1971_2.png) [@Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sebastien_Lavoie1)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/1 "2012-09-12T14:50:12Z")
Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring ElasticSearch on a single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard time finding appropriate documentation to do so. Thanks for your time. -- ---
**Author:** ![Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sebastien_lavoie1/32/1971_2.png) [@Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sebastien_Lavoie1)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/2 "2012-09-12T14:50:46Z")
Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > **[Configure ElasticSearch on a single shared host and reduce memory usage](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html)** > > Configure ElasticSearch on a single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage ... On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on a > single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > Thanks for your time. -- ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/3 "2012-09-12T15:17:35Z")
Oooops... First sentence is wrong: Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy to use, search engine based on Solr, Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 HTH David. Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" [sebastien@lavoie.sl](mailto:sebastien@lavoie.sl) a écrit : > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > [Configure ElasticSearch on a single shared host and reduce memory usage • Websites, Hosting and Friends](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > ... > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on > > > a single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory > > > usage and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a > > > very hard time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > > > > -- -- David Pilato [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs -- ---
**Author:** ![Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sebastien_lavoie1/32/1971_2.png) [@Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sebastien_Lavoie1)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/4 "2012-09-12T15:19:17Z")
Thanks for the meta, but ideas about the content ? 😛 Seb On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David Pilato [david@pilato.fr](mailto:david@pilato.fr) wrote: > \*\* > > Oooops... First sentence is wrong: > > Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy to > use, search engine based on Solr, > > Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 > > HTH > > David. > > Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" [sebastien@lavoie.sl](mailto:sebastien@lavoie.sl) a > écrit : > > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > [Configure ElasticSearch on a single shared host and reduce memory usage • Websites, Hosting and Friends](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > ... > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on a > single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > Thanks for your time. > > -- > > -- > David Pilato > [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) > [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![William\_King](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/william_king/32/2631_2.png) [@William\_King](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/William_King)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/5 "2012-09-12T20:26:18Z")
One thing you might want to do is change the default max file descriptors (especially if your running multiple servers on one machine!) to something higher. You could do ulimit -n unlimited for that. On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 8:19:21 AM UTC-7, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > Thanks for the meta, but ideas about the content ? 😛 > > Seb > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David Pilato \<[da...@pilato.fr](mailto:da...@pilato.fr)\ > > > wrote: > > > \*\* > > > > Oooops... First sentence is wrong: > > > > Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy to > > use, search engine based on Solr, > > > > Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 > > > > HTH > > > > David. > > > > Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" \\> > > a écrit : > > > > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > > > > [Configure ElasticSearch on a single shared host and reduce memory usage • Websites, Hosting and Friends](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > > > ... > > > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on a > > single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > -- > > > > -- > > David Pilato > > [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) > > [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) > > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sebastien_lavoie1/32/1971_2.png) [@Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sebastien_Lavoie1)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/6 "2012-09-12T21:13:46Z")
Well, I am not sure ES really needs 64k opened files, 15k seems enough. This is mostly intended for small amount of data. What are the pitfalls of reducing it too much ? It will spend all its time opening and closing files ? Perhaps I could give a suggestion to use roughly 10 times the value of \_all/total/docs/count after all base data has been indexed. Ideas ? Thanks for your time Seb On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 4:26 PM, William King [willtrking@gmail.com](mailto:willtrking@gmail.com) wrote: > One thing you might want to do is change the default max file descriptors > (especially if your running multiple servers on one machine!) to something > higher. You could do ulimit -n unlimited for that. > > On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 8:19:21 AM UTC-7, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > Thanks for the meta, but ideas about the content ? 😛 > > > > Seb > > > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David Pilato [da...@pilato.fr](mailto:da...@pilato.fr) wrote: > > > > > \*\* > > > > > > Oooops... First sentence is wrong: > > > > > > Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy > > > to use, search engine based on Solr, > > > > > > Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 > > > > > > HTH > > > > > > David. > > > > > > Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" [seba...@lavoie.sl](mailto:seba...@lavoie.sl) a > > > écrit : > > > > > > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > > > [http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/\*\*configure-elasticsearch-on-a-](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/**configure-elasticsearch-on-a-)\*\* > > > single-host.html[http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > > > > > ... > > > > > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > > > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on a > > > single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > > > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > > > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > > > -- > > > > > > -- > > > David Pilato > > > [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) > > > [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) > > > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > > > > > -- > > > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![William\_King](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/william_king/32/2631_2.png) [@William\_King](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/William_King)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/7 "2012-09-13T01:40:14Z")
I wouldnt imagine that ES alone would take up 64k files, not even close to it. My implementations seem to use 700-1500. However your post is referencing the problem of running ES alongside Apache and a database. Apache alone might not take up that many file descriptors but the database could (depending on the database). The ulimit -n unlimited command will set the system wide max file descriptors for all services, not just ES. I'm not sure if the init file MAX\_OPEN\_FILES setting your referring to sets system wide file descriptors or not, but if it doesn't you need to set it with ulimit or some other method. On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 2:13:50 PM UTC-7, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > Well, I am not sure ES really needs 64k opened files, 15k seems enough. > This is mostly intended for small amount of data. What are the pitfalls of > reducing it too much ? It will spend all its time opening and closing files > ? > > Perhaps I could give a suggestion to use roughly 10 times the value of > \_all/total/docs/count after all base data has been indexed. Ideas ? > > Thanks for your time > > Seb > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 4:26 PM, William King \<[willt...@gmail.com](mailto:willt...@gmail.com)\ > > > wrote: > > > One thing you might want to do is change the default max file descriptors > > (especially if your running multiple servers on one machine!) to something > > higher. You could do ulimit -n unlimited for that. > > > > On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 8:19:21 AM UTC-7, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > > > Thanks for the meta, but ideas about the content ? 😛 > > > > > > Seb > > > > > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David Pilato [da...@pilato.fr](mailto:da...@pilato.fr) wrote: > > > > > > > \*\* > > > > > > > > Oooops... First sentence is wrong: > > > > > > > > Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy > > > > to use, search engine based on Solr, > > > > > > > > Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 > > > > > > > > HTH > > > > > > > > David. > > > > > > > > Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" [seba...@lavoie.sl](mailto:seba...@lavoie.sl) a > > > > écrit : > > > > > > > > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > > > > [http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/\*\*configure-elasticsearch-on-a-](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/**configure-elasticsearch-on-a-)\*\* > > > > single-host.html[http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > > > > > > > ... > > > > > > > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > > > > > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on > > > > a single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > > > > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > > > > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > > > > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > -- > > > > David Pilato > > > > [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) > > > > [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) > > > > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![BillyEm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BillyEm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BillyEm)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 7:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/8 "2012-09-13T07:36:35Z")
A better way to handle nofile limits is per-user of course. So you can have an es\_admin that has a large number and other users, including root, running where the system configured them to. See any linux post on /etc/security/limits.conf As to behavior, even today, too many programs crash when they run out of file descriptors; its not a performance hit exactly ... 😉 On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 9:40:14 PM UTC-4, William King wrote: > I wouldnt imagine that ES alone would take up 64k files, not even close to > it. My implementations seem to use 700-1500. However your post is > referencing the problem of running ES alongside Apache and a database. > Apache alone might not take up that many file descriptors but the database > could (depending on the database). The ulimit -n unlimited command will > set the system wide max file descriptors for all services, not just ES. I'm > not sure if the init file MAX\_OPEN\_FILES setting your referring to sets > system wide file descriptors or not, but if it doesn't you need to set it > with ulimit or some other method. > > On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 2:13:50 PM UTC-7, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > Well, I am not sure ES really needs 64k opened files, 15k seems enough. > > This is mostly intended for small amount of data. What are the pitfalls of > > reducing it too much ? It will spend all its time opening and closing files > > ? > > > > Perhaps I could give a suggestion to use roughly 10 times the value of > > \_all/total/docs/count after all base data has been indexed. Ideas ? > > > > Thanks for your time > > > > Seb > > > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 4:26 PM, William King [willt...@gmail.com](mailto:willt...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > > > One thing you might want to do is change the default max file > > > descriptors (especially if your running multiple servers on one machine!) > > > to something higher. You could do ulimit -n unlimited for that. > > > > > > On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 8:19:21 AM UTC-7, Sébastien Lavoie > > > wrote: > > > > > > > Thanks for the meta, but ideas about the content ? 😛 > > > > > > > > Seb > > > > > > > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David Pilato [da...@pilato.fr](mailto:da...@pilato.fr) wrote: > > > > > > > > > \*\* > > > > > > > > > > Oooops... First sentence is wrong: > > > > > > > > > > Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy > > > > > to use, search engine based on Solr, > > > > > > > > > > Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 > > > > > > > > > > HTH > > > > > > > > > > David. > > > > > > > > > > Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" [seba...@lavoie.sl](mailto:seba...@lavoie.sl) > > > > > a écrit : > > > > > > > > > > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > > > > > [http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/\*\*configure-elasticsearch-on-a-](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/**configure-elasticsearch-on-a-)\*\* > > > > > single-host.html[http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > > > > > > > > > ... > > > > > > > > > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on > > > > > a single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > > > > > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > > > > > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > > > > > > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > David Pilato > > > > > [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) > > > > > [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) > > > > > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![Radu\_Gheorghe1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/radu_gheorghe1/32/2688_2.png) [@Radu\_Gheorghe1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Radu_Gheorghe1)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 7:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/9 "2012-09-13T07:53:41Z")
Hello Seb, Nice post 🙂 I wouldn't bother about disabling replicas. If you have one node only it won't replicate anything. Only when you start adding nodes it will allocate replicas. On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 6:19:21 PM UTC+3, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > Thanks for the meta, but ideas about the content ? 😛 > > Seb > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David Pilato \<[da...@pilato.fr](mailto:da...@pilato.fr)\ > > > wrote: > > > \*\* > > > > Oooops... First sentence is wrong: > > > > Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy to > > use, search engine based on Solr, > > > > Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 > > > > HTH > > > > David. > > > > Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" \\> > > a écrit : > > > > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > > > > [Configure ElasticSearch on a single shared host and reduce memory usage • Websites, Hosting and Friends](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > > > ... > > > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on a > > single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > -- > > > > -- > > David Pilato > > [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) > > [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) > > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sebastien_lavoie1/32/1971_2.png) [@Sebastien\_Lavoie1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sebastien_Lavoie1)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/10 "2012-09-13T12:25:47Z")
@Billy, Ok, I got your point concerning file descriptors, I updated it, thanks. @Radu, This is the recommended way that you can see in the comments of elasticasearch.yml Thanks On Thursday, 13 September 2012 03:53:42 UTC-4, Radu Gheorghe wrote: > Hello Seb, > > Nice post 🙂 > > I wouldn't bother about disabling replicas. If you have one node only it > won't replicate anything. Only when you start adding nodes it will allocate > replicas. > > On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 6:19:21 PM UTC+3, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > Thanks for the meta, but ideas about the content ? 😛 > > > > Seb > > > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David Pilato [da...@pilato.fr](mailto:da...@pilato.fr) wrote: > > > > > \*\* > > > > > > Oooops... First sentence is wrong: > > > > > > Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a powerful, yet easy > > > to use, search engine based on Solr, > > > > > > Oh my god... I don't think that ES is based on SOLR 😉 > > > > > > HTH > > > > > > David. > > > > > > Le 12 septembre 2012 à 16:50, "Sébastien Lavoie" [seba...@lavoie.sl](mailto:seba...@lavoie.sl) a > > > écrit : > > > > > > Wow, sorry about that, typical failure of adding the URL: > > > > > > [Configure ElasticSearch on a single shared host and reduce memory usage • Websites, Hosting and Friends](http://blog.lavoie.sl/2012/09/configure-elasticsearch-on-a-single-host.html) > > > > > > ... > > > > > > On Wednesday, 12 September 2012 10:50:13 UTC-4, Sébastien Lavoie wrote: > > > > > > Hello everyone, I wrote a blog post about configuring Elasticsearch on a > > > single shared host by deactivating replication and limiting memory usage > > > and I would very much appreciate your feedback because I had a very hard > > > time finding appropriate documentation to do so. > > > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > > > -- > > > > > > -- > > > David Pilato > > > [http://www.scrutmydocs.org/](http://www.scrutmydocs.org/) > > > [http://dev.david.pilato.fr/](http://dev.david.pilato.fr/) > > > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > > > > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/11 "2012-09-14T04:05:16Z")
On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 12:53 AM, Radu Gheorghe [radu0gheorghe@gmail.com](mailto:radu0gheorghe@gmail.com) wrote: > Hello Seb, > > Nice post 🙂 > > I wouldn't bother about disabling replicas. If you have one node only it > won't replicate anything. Only when you start adding nodes it will allocate > replicas. While you are correct that the shards will not be allocated until you start adding more nodes, the index will be in a constant yellow state since the replica shards have not been allocated. Changing the replica setting can be done at any time, the shard count cannot. If you envision running two nodes in the future (more for high availability than performance), I would set the shard count to 2 (or higher) from the start. The number of shards does affect the number of file descriptors used. If you add more nodes, then you can change the replica count. Cheers, Ivan -- ---
**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, 3:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/feedback-request-configuration-of-es-on-a-single-host/9002/12 "2017-07-06T03:12:48Z")