# Max\_shards\_per\_node best practice

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/max-shards-per-node-best-practice/358622
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** ilm-index-lifecycle-management
**Created:** [May 2, 2024, 9:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/max-shards-per-node-best-practice/358622 "2024-05-02T09:29:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Frances\_Chu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/frances_chu/32/127298_2.png) [@Frances\_Chu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Frances_Chu)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2024, 9:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/max-shards-per-node-best-practice/358622/1 "2024-05-02T09:29:12Z")

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By default the cluster.max\_shards\_per\_node is 1000.  
I would like to increase the value.  
Any impact to the system. How to determine the best value of cluster.max\_shards\_per\_node?

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### Author: ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2024, 9:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/max-shards-per-node-best-practice/358622/2 "2024-05-02T09:39:42Z")

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In my opinion the default limit of 1000 is already quite high, so I would recommend not changing it. Instead look at how you are sharding your data and ensure you are not creating an unnecessary large number of small shards.

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### Author: ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/max-shards-per-node-best-practice/358622/3 "2024-05-02T14:11:05Z")

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I think [the docs for this setting](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/misc-cluster-settings.html) answer your question:

> **IMPORTANT** : These limits are intended as a safety net to protect against runaway shard creation and are not a sizing recommendation. The exact number of shards your cluster can safely support depends on your hardware configuration and workload, and may be smaller than the default limits.
> 
> We do not recommend increasing these limits beyond the defaults. Clusters with more shards may appear to run well in normal operation, but may take a very long time to recover from temporary disruptions such as a network partition or an unexpected node restart, and may encounter problems when performing maintenance activities such as a rolling restart or upgrade.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Frances\_Chu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/frances_chu/32/127298_2.png) [@Frances\_Chu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Frances_Chu)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2024, 3:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/max-shards-per-node-best-practice/358622/4 "2024-05-07T03:47:38Z")

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If I set the number to 2000. It is possible to set back to 1000.