# Large garbage collection **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 18, 2019, 8:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/large-garbage-collection/191160 "2019-07-18T08:40:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Barak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@Barak](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Barak)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 8:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/large-garbage-collection/191160/1 "2019-07-18T08:40:16Z")
Hi, I am running constant indexing of ~500/s and ~3000/s reads on my cluster, and during that I see big drops in heap usage on the data nodes: ![36](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/3/d/3d64ff904ed90ec94eb227a966ad40befb771287.png) Cluster: 5 master nodes 7 data nodes 2 coordinator nodes Is that an expected behavior or are there any changes that need to be done in regard of the garbage collection? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![martinr\_ubi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@martinr\_ubi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/martinr_ubi)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/large-garbage-collection/191160/2 "2019-07-18T09:57:11Z")
That's expected yes. Please read those 4 documents: > **[Understanding the Memory Pressure Indicator](https://www.elastic.co/blog/found-understanding-memory-pressure-indicator)** > > We all know memory is critical to Elasticsearch, but when should you add more? In the Found console we've included a memory pressure indicator so that you can easily check where your cluster is at in terms of memory usage and capacity. For those... [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud/current/ec-metrics-memory-pressure.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud/current/ec-metrics-memory-pressure.html) [https://www.elastic.co/blog/a-heap-of-trouble](https://www.elastic.co/blog/a-heap-of-trouble) > **[Memory issues we'll remember](https://www.elastic.co/blog/memory-issues-well-remember)** > > Our Cloud service experienced issues with managing memory for the clusters. This blog is a postmortem of the incident. Tons of reading material but after the above I would guess you'd be at least in the 90th percentile in regards to "heap on ES". Complement as you go along or on an as needed basis. ---
**Author:** ![Barak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@Barak](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Barak)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 10:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/large-garbage-collection/191160/3 "2019-07-18T10:55:58Z")
Thanks @martinr_ubi ! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 10:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/large-garbage-collection/191160/4 "2019-08-15T10:56:00Z")
Closed on August 15, 2019, 10:56am UTC This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.