# How does the elasticsearch expand capacity and shrink capacity？ **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [September 5, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396 "2017-09-05T09:39:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/1 "2017-09-05T09:39:14Z")
elasticsearch version: 5.5.2 OS: Linux A cluster of 3 nodes. How does elasticsearch reduce capacity and scale out capacity? Is there any operation command? ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 9:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/2 "2017-09-05T09:44:45Z")
What do you mean by expanding and shrinking capacity? ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/3 "2017-09-05T10:06:50Z")
Sorry， I mean how elasticsearch reduce capacity and scale out capacity. ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 10:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/4 "2017-09-05T10:12:40Z")
What type of capacity? Storage, nodes, heap, RAM, CPU? ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/5 "2017-09-05T10:15:53Z")
Yes, it is storage. Now I put large amount of data in the index, but the primary shards can't store any more, how to solve this problem? ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 10:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/6 "2017-09-05T10:17:36Z")
What is your use case? How many indices and shards do you have? How many documents in total? How large are the indices and shards? ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/7 "2017-09-05T10:26:10Z")
Yeah, thanks. I put 10TB data into one index, and there are 3 primary shards and 6 replica shards, if I want to store more data, how to scale out the storage of elasticsearch. ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 10:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/8 "2017-09-05T10:28:17Z")
What type of data do you have? What is the use case? I assume the PB is a typo? Should it be GB or TB? ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/9 "2017-09-05T10:37:43Z")
Yeah, the unit is PB. Because the number of primary shards can't be modified once created, then how do we scale out their storage later? ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 10:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/10 "2017-09-05T10:46:33Z")
It looks like you corrected it to TB. What is the use case? What type of data do you have? The reason I am asking this is that it impacts how you best manage your data. ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 10:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/11 "2017-09-05T10:50:20Z")
I would recommend you read this section from 'Elasticsearch: the definitive guide' around [designing for scale](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/scale.html). ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/12 "2017-09-05T10:52:38Z")
Sorry, I don't have particular type of data now, I just assumpt that. ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/13 "2017-09-05T10:58:22Z")
Thanks, but there aren't many operations guides in the page. I'm sorry that I still have no idea how to do. ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 10:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/14 "2017-09-05T10:59:40Z")
You define your indexing and sharing strategy based on what type of data you have, which is described in the documentation I linked to. Elasticsearch will use the storage it has available and once you reach the limit of the nodes in the cluster, you usually scale up/and or out, at which point Elasticsearch will redistribute the data. Once you have more details we might be able to provide better and more detailed guidance. ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 11:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/15 "2017-09-05T11:10:48Z")
Thanks, we really looking forward to your more detailed guidance. And could you explain a lit more detail about how Elasticsearch redistribute the data? ---
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 11:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/16 "2017-09-05T11:17:26Z")
Please read the full chapter I linked earlier. You may also find [this guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/administration.html) useful. Without details around your use-case or data I am afraid I can not provide any more detailed guidance. ---
**Author:** ![saliormoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saliormoon/32/21499_2.png) [@saliormoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saliormoon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 2:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/17 "2017-09-06T02:50:33Z")
Ok, thanks a lot. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 2:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-the-elasticsearch-expand-capacity-and-shrink-capacity/99396/18 "2017-10-04T02:50:35Z")
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