# Maximum limit for index **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [December 11, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037 "2012-12-11T12:30:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Honjoya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/honjoya/32/2576_2.png) [@Honjoya](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Honjoya)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/1 "2012-12-11T12:30:35Z")
Hi, I'm having trouble with the maximum index per node, my server has 8gb and -Xms, Xmx are both with 7GB, but I can only create 100 index on a node, the node crashes after 100 index. I wonder if there is some configuration that solves this problem. thanks ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/2 "2012-12-12T19:35:48Z")
Elasticsearch by default uses memory outside of the JVM heap to store the index data. Look at the cache.memory.direct setting: > **[Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale](https://www.elastic.co)** > > Power insights and outcomes with the Elasticsearch Platform and AI. See into your data and find answers that matter with enterprise solutions designed to help you build, observe, and protect. Try Elasticsearch free today. You should lower your JVM heap to roughly 50% of your total memory. JVM heap is used for the field and filter cache. Cheers, Ivan On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 4:30 AM, Honjoya [ti.honjoya@gmail.com](mailto:ti.honjoya@gmail.com) wrote: > Hi, > > I'm having trouble with the maximum index per node, my server has 8gb and > -Xms, Xmx are both with 7GB, but I can only create 100 index on a node, > the > node crashes after 100 index. I wonder if there is some configuration that > solves this problem. > > thanks > > -- > View this message in context: > [http://elasticsearch-users.115913.n3.nabble.com/Maximum-limit-for-index-tp4026835.html](http://elasticsearch-users.115913.n3.nabble.com/Maximum-limit-for-index-tp4026835.html) > Sent from the Elasticsearch Users mailing list archive at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com). > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/3 "2012-12-12T19:42:44Z")
I misread your post as "I can only index 100 documents", but the suggestion still remains. Is there anything in the logs that indicates what happen when the node crashed? Each shard is a Lucene index, so many indexes can result in too many files open. Which OS are you using? If \*nix, what is your ulimit set to? -- Ivan On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 4:30 AM, Honjoya [ti.honjoya@gmail.com](mailto:ti.honjoya@gmail.com) wrote: > with the maximum index per node, my serve -- ---
**Author:** ![Honjoya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/honjoya/32/2576_2.png) [@Honjoya](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Honjoya)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/4 "2012-12-12T20:08:12Z")
Hi Ivan. I am using linux, elasticsearch.yml is the default. When locking the index, it generates this error: org.elasticsearch.index.engine.RefreshFailedEngineException: [0.93333500] [0] Refresh failed at org.elasticsearch.index.engine.robin.RobinEngine.refresh (RobinEngine.java: 788) at org.elasticsearch.index.shard.service.InternalIndexShard.refresh (InternalIndexShard.java: 403) at at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker (ThreadPoolExecutor.java: 1110) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor $ Worker.run (ThreadPoolExecutor.java: 603) at java.lang.Thread.run (Thread.java: 722) Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: / usr/local/share/elasticsearch/data/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/0.93333500/0/index/\_0.prx (Too many open files) java.io.RandomAccessFile.open at (Native Method) at java.io.RandomAccessFile. (RandomAccessFile.java: 233) org.apache.lucene.store.FSDirectory at $ FSIndexOutput. (FSDirectory.java: 441) at org.apache.lucene.store.FSDirectory.createOutput (FSDirectory.java: 306) at org.apache.lucene.store.XNIOFSDirectory.createOutput (XNIOFSDirectory.java: 48) org.elasticsearch.index.store.Store at $ StoreDirectory.createOutput (Store.java: 487) org.elasticsearch.index.store.Store at $ StoreDirectory.createOutput (Store.java: 459) at org.apache.lucene.index.FormatPostingsPositionsWriter. (FormatPostingsPositionsWriter.java: 43) at org.apache.lucene.index.FormatPostingsDocsWriter. (FormatPostingsDocsWriter.java: 57) at org.apache.lucene.index.FormatPostingsTermsWriter. (FormatPostingsTermsWriter.java: 33) at org.apache.lucene.index.FormatPostingsFieldsWriter. (FormatPostingsFieldsWriter.java: 51) at org.apache.lucene.index.FreqProxTermsWriter.flush (FreqProxTermsWriter.java: 85) at org.apache.lucene.index.TermsHash.flush (TermsHash.java: 113) at org.apache.lucene.index.DocInverter.flush (DocInverter.java: 70) at org.apache.lucene.index.DocFieldProcessor.flush (DocFieldProcessor.java: 60) at org.apache.lucene.index.DocumentsWriter.flush (DocumentsWriter.java: 581) at org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter.doFlush (IndexWriter.java: 3587) at org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter.flush (IndexWriter.java: 3552) at org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter.getReader (IndexWriter.java: 450) at org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter.getReader (IndexWriter.java: 399) at org.apache.lucene.index.DirectoryReader.doOpenFromWriter (DirectoryReader.java: 413) at org.apache.lucene.index.DirectoryReader.doOpenIfChanged (DirectoryReader.java: 432) at org.apache.lucene.index.DirectoryReader.doOpenIfChanged (DirectoryReader.java: 375) at org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader.openIfChanged (IndexReader.java: 508) at org.apache.lucene.search.SearcherManager.refreshIfNeeded (SearcherManager.java: 109) at org.apache.lucene.search.SearcherManager.refreshIfNeeded (SearcherManager.java: 57) at org.apache.lucene.search.ReferenceManager.maybeRefresh (ReferenceManager.java: 137) at org.elasticsearch.index.engine.robin.RobinEngine.refresh (RobinEngine.java: 769) ... 5 more ---
**Author:** ![jprante](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jprante/32/44941_2.png) [@jprante](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jprante)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/5 "2012-12-13T00:51:18Z")
What is the crash message you encounter? How many shards do you create per index? How many nodes did you set up and how many documents did you indexed? If you went with the default setting of 5 shards per index, you created 500 Lucene indexes on a single machine, which is IMHO a quite impressive number, if they are filled with documents and being searched. Of course you can lower the shard count to 1, so you can create 500 physical indexes. If you use aliases for indexes and routing, you can have thousands and thousands of indexes from a logical point of view via the API. Jörg -- ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/6 "2012-12-13T17:23:25Z")
Exactly as I expected:Too many open files > **[Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale](https://www.elastic.co)** > > Power insights and outcomes with the Elasticsearch Platform and AI. See into your data and find answers that matter with enterprise solutions designed to help you build, observe, and protect. Try Elasticsearch free today. You would need to increase your ulimit, but better yet, perhaps you should refactor your index design and reduce the number of indices. Follow all of Jörg's suggestions. Cheers, Ivan On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 12:08 PM, Honjoya [ti.honjoya@gmail.com](mailto:ti.honjoya@gmail.com) wrote: > Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: / > > usr/local/share/elasticsearch/data/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/0.93333500/0/index/\_0.prx > (Too many open files) > java.io.RandomAccessFile.open at (Native Method) > at java.io.RandomAccessFile. (RandomAccessFile.java: 233) > org.apache.lucene.store.FSDirectory at $ FSIndexOutput. -- ---
**Author:** ![Honjoya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/honjoya/32/2576_2.png) [@Honjoya](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Honjoya)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/7 "2012-12-13T19:13:09Z")
Actually the problem was related to "Too many open files" Thank you all for your help .. Thanks. ---
**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, 2:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/maximum-limit-for-index/10037/8 "2017-07-06T02:59:56Z")