# Kibana Stack Monitoring Total Shards

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-stack-monitoring-total-shards/354704>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-monitoring, elastic-stack-alerting\
**Created:** [March 5, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-stack-monitoring-total-shards/354704 "2024-03-05T08:18:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CCee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@CCee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/CCee)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-stack-monitoring-total-shards/354704/1 "2024-03-05T08:18:12Z")

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Hello,  
I saw the value of "Total shards" in stack monitoring within Kibana. How is this value obtained? Can I set up an alert for this value? For example, send an email if total shards \> 800, given the default value is 1000.

Also, is it advisable to change the default number of shards per node (default 1000)?

 ![elkalert](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/9/b/9b8da4599ee57a3b99df70e85e0295a2ea269f7c.jpeg)

I appreciate any advice. Thank you

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**Author:** ![jsanz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jsanz/32/53734_2.png) [@jsanz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jsanz)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 10:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-stack-monitoring-total-shards/354704/2 "2024-03-08T10:38:17Z")

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In the top right of your screenshot you can see the Alert and Rulse action, from there you can create a new rule for the shard size

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/7/8/78955d468b01b56677893992988af7ddb1c92cf5.png)

> Also, is it advisable to change the default number of shards per node (default 1000)?

I would open a new question in the Elasticsearch forum for this. My only advice is to check the documentation and best practices, if you haven't already

> **[Size your shards | Elasticsearch Guide \[8.12\] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/size-your-shards.html)**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CCee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@CCee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/CCee)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-stack-monitoring-total-shards/354704/3 "2024-03-11T03:59:21Z")

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Hi Jsanz,

Thank you very much for your response!

I appreciate you providing a method for alerting on a single shard size.

Another thing I'd like to know is that by default, the maximum number of shards per node is set to 1000. If we exceed 800 shards, I'd like to trigger an alert.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-stack-monitoring-total-shards/354704/4 "2024-04-08T03:59:50Z")

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