# Heap 50% of 30GB no docs yet

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 22, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938 "2021-01-22T16:03:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![chrislinx](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chrislinx/32/85845_2.png) [@chrislinx](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chrislinx)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938/1 "2021-01-22T16:03:42Z")

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3 physical Elasticsearch nodes in a cluster. Each node 8 core 64gb ram ubuntu svr 20.04 lts with 2TB M2 storage. 30gb Heap. 600 shards, 1 replica. I will eventually index 10TB on this cluster so 20GB per shard ~12TB. My strategy is to start on these 3 servers and expand the cluster as docs grow. Why on earth is my heap so high on 600 shards with 0 docs indexed yet? So I need to immediately expand h/w for 3 separate master nodes? What am I missing?

 ![es](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/d/a/da17aee0e4d8fa460f921fe9a3900cb29eef6727.png)

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### 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: [January 27, 2021, 8:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938/2 "2021-01-27T08:18:23Z")

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Which version of Elasticsearch are you using?

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### Author: ![chrislinx](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chrislinx/32/85845_2.png) [@chrislinx](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chrislinx)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938/3 "2021-01-28T17:23:04Z")

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Thank you. The latest version 7.10.2

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### Author: ![HenningAndersen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/henningandersen/32/48188_2.png) [@HenningAndersen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/HenningAndersen)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 1:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938/4 "2021-01-29T13:03:01Z")

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Hi @chrislinx ,

the heap used may contain lots of garbage too, which is essentially free space. You can try to use `jcmd <pid> GC.run`, hopefully it then drops to the minimal level required for the node.

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### Author: ![chrislinx](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chrislinx/32/85845_2.png) [@chrislinx](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chrislinx)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938/5 "2021-01-30T18:51:00Z")

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Hi @HenningAndersen,

thank you very much for the heads up!

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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: [February 27, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/heap-50-of-30gb-no-docs-yet/261938/6 "2021-02-27T18:51:44Z")

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