# Impact of very large number of aliases **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 5, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/impact-of-very-large-number-of-aliases/9562 "2012-11-05T17:06:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Tillman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gordon_tillman/32/984_2.png) [@Gordon\_Tillman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gordon_Tillman)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/impact-of-very-large-number-of-aliases/9562/1 "2012-11-05T17:06:41Z")
Greetings All, Are there any known performance issues to consider in the event that we use a very large number of aliases in an ES cluster? The use case that motivates this question is a follows. Here is an extremely- simplified representation of some data we want to index: { "parent": "", "name": "", ``` "type": "file" | "container", ``` } The is a UUID. Our thoughts are to have an over-sharded index to start with for storing all of these objects in, using the "parent" as a route. If a given parent container ends up with enough objects in it such that searches for the objects inside that container start to become non-performant, we can re-index that container's information into its own index and update the alias for that container accordingly. This means that any time we create a container, we create alias to use when searching that container's list of children, and the number of containers in the system will get large. Thanks in advance for any feedback you may have. --gordon -- ---
**Author:** ![Igor\_Motov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/igor_motov/32/45193_2.png) [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/impact-of-very-large-number-of-aliases/9562/2 "2012-11-05T23:40:45Z")
It primarily depends on your definition of a very large number and how often you are going to update the aliases. The major issue that you might run into here is that the entire list is a part of the cluster state and it is sent to all nodes on each cluster state update (which happens when you add or change an alias for example). So, I would suggest testing creation and deletion of aliases to determine if you can get acceptable response times. On Monday, November 5, 2012 12:06:41 PM UTC-5, Gordon Tillman wrote: > Greetings All, > > Are there any known performance issues to consider in the event that we > use a very large number of aliases in an ES cluster? The use case that > motivates this question is a follows. > > Here is an extremely- simplified representation of some data we want to > index: > > { > "parent": "", > "name": "", > > ``` > "type": "file" | "container", > > ``` > > } > > The is a UUID. Our thoughts are to have an > over-sharded index to start with for storing all of these objects in, using > the "parent" as a route. If a given parent container ends up with enough > objects in it such that searches for the objects inside that container > start to become non-performant, we can re-index that container's > information into its own index and update the alias for that container > accordingly. > > This means that any time we create a container, we create alias to use > when searching that container's list of children, and the number of > containers in the system will get large. > > Thanks in advance for any feedback you may have. > > --gordon -- ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Tillman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gordon_tillman/32/984_2.png) [@Gordon\_Tillman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gordon_Tillman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/impact-of-very-large-number-of-aliases/9562/3 "2012-11-06T18:41:47Z")
Igor thank you very much for the information. I appreciate your time and trouble. -- gordon On Monday, November 5, 2012 5:40:45 PM UTC-6, Igor Motov wrote: > It primarily depends on your definition of a very large number and how > often you are going to update the aliases. The major issue that you might > run into here is that the entire list is a part of the cluster state and it > is sent to all nodes on each cluster state update (which happens when you > add or change an alias for example). So, I would suggest testing creation > and deletion of aliases to determine if you can get acceptable response > times. > > On Monday, November 5, 2012 12:06:41 PM UTC-5, Gordon Tillman wrote: > > > Greetings All, > > > > Are there any known performance issues to consider in the event that we > > use a very large number of aliases in an ES cluster? The use case that > > motivates this question is a follows. > > > > Here is an extremely- simplified representation of some data we want to > > index: > > > > { > > "parent": "", > > "name": "", > > > > ``` > > "type": "file" | "container", > > > > ``` > > > > } > > > > The is a UUID. Our thoughts are to have an > > over-sharded index to start with for storing all of these objects in, using > > the "parent" as a route. If a given parent container ends up with enough > > objects in it such that searches for the objects inside that container > > start to become non-performant, we can re-index that container's > > information into its own index and update the alias for that container > > accordingly. > > > > This means that any time we create a container, we create alias to use > > when searching that container's list of children, and the number of > > containers in the system will get large. > > > > Thanks in advance for any feedback you may have. > > > > --gordon -- ---
**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, 3:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/impact-of-very-large-number-of-aliases/9562/4 "2017-07-06T03:05:55Z")