# How to use client nodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [January 5, 2016, 4:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366 "2016-01-05T04:43:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mad\_min](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mad_min/32/5964_2.png) [@mad\_min](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mad_min)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 4:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/1 "2016-01-05T04:43:03Z")
I have a cluster of 4 master, 8 data and 2 client/query nodes. This is ingesting logs from logstash. Currently, logstash is sending to all the data nodes (assumption: its load balancing). Is this the most optimal way? Should logstash send to the client/query nodes instead? Currently, the client nodes are what Kibana and Grafana speak to and have the most RAM and cores provisioned for it. Thanks in advance for any pointers. ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 4:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/2 "2016-01-05T04:44:05Z")
Depends on your EPS and query load. If you do lots of queries then leaving things as they are is fine. > [@mad\_min](#): > > 4 master That's an odd number, why 4? ---
**Author:** ![mad\_min](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mad_min/32/5964_2.png) [@mad\_min](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mad_min)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 4:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/3 "2016-01-05T04:48:55Z")
Thanks @warkolm. 1. I do foresee burst of queries coming in (~100). But not more. However, the queries could result in tons of data. 2. Well 4 masters because I started with 3 and they were spread out in different subnets and I felt one of them was flaky because of subneting issues so I brought another one up, but thats not the case so I kept 4. Ideally they should be 'odd' in number? (Will bring one down then) Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 4:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/4 "2016-01-05T04:49:38Z")
Ideally they should be odd, do you have [this](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/_important_configuration_changes.html#_minimum_master_nodes) set at least? ---
**Author:** ![mad\_min](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mad_min/32/5964_2.png) [@mad\_min](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mad_min)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 5:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/5 "2016-01-05T05:04:11Z")
Yes, thanks for the pointer. I have it set to 3. Slightly overwhelmed with all the knobs there are to squeeze out the best performance, will get there soon hopefully. (Hint: pointer to a nice 'Tips'n'Tricks would help) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/6 "2016-01-05T05:28:12Z")
There's no single source for that, you kinda need to just go through each thing and optimise it. That's what the forums (and support) are for 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mad\_min](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mad_min/32/5964_2.png) [@mad\_min](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mad_min)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/7 "2016-01-06T18:56:26Z")
Yeah, totally agree. I am reaching that same conclusion. Plus a lot of content on the web helps as well. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-client-nodes/38366/8 "2017-07-05T23:26:41Z")