# How many shards do I need to have?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [April 14, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777 "2019-04-14T11:18:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@corvintheus](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/corvintheus)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777/1 "2019-04-14T11:18:51Z")
I have 3 nodes setup with default 5 shards and 1 replica. Now I am indexing 1.3TB daily. I have read that shard should atleast max at 50GB now I am wondering how many shards do I need for this kind of setup? Does 10 primary and 10 replica enough? Or 20 primary and 20 replica? Also 1.3TB are both primary (600GB) and replica (600GB). Thanks!
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### Author:  [@maembe](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/maembe)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 11:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777/2 "2019-04-14T11:55:35Z")
The rule of thumb for shard size is no more that 50G per shard, so you're going to probably need closer to 30.
Also, the number of replicas you specify is per index, so 1 or 2.
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### Author:  [@corvintheus](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/corvintheus)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777/3 "2019-04-14T12:13:55Z")
You mean to say 30 primary shard? Or 30 shards total? Also how can I increase the number of shard? Just put number\_of\_shard: 30 in elasticsearch.yml?
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### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 12:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777/4 "2019-04-14T12:36:05Z")
May I suggest you look at the following resources about sizing:
[https://www.elastic.co/elasticon/conf/2016/sf/quantitative-cluster-sizing](https://www.elastic.co/elasticon/conf/2016/sf/quantitative-cluster-sizing)
> **[How many shards should I have in my Elasticsearch cluster?
| Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/blog/how-many-shards-should-i-have-in-my-elasticsearch-cluster)**
>
> Elasticsearch is a very versatile platform, that supports a variety of use cases, and provides great flexibility around data organisation and replication strategies. This flexibility can however somet...
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/vR0XKDq4TGa77z
And [https://www.elastic.co/webinars/using-rally-to-get-your-elasticsearch-cluster-size-right](https://www.elastic.co/webinars/using-rally-to-get-your-elasticsearch-cluster-size-right)
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### Author:  [@corvintheus](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/corvintheus)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777/5 "2019-04-14T12:52:29Z")
Thanks a lot. I will give it a time to read. Meanwhile, I want to experiment the number of shards since It's taking awhile rerouting shard from one node to another since I have atleast 150g per shard.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-many-shards-do-i-need-to-have/176777/6 "2019-05-12T12:52:38Z")
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