# Purpose / Significance of Port Ranges (9300-9400)

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/purpose-significance-of-port-ranges-9300-9400/19048>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 2, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/purpose-significance-of-port-ranges-9300-9400/19048 "2014-08-02T16:26:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mhughes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@mhughes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mhughes)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/purpose-significance-of-port-ranges-9300-9400/19048/1 "2014-08-02T16:26:13Z")

</div>

I'm running elasticsearch in a somewhat locked down environment and the  
less ports I have open, the better.

I guess my questions boil down to:

1. Why do you need multiple ports open in the 93xx range?
2. Will anything bad happen if I just have 9300 open? Will performance  
suffer, and if so, in what areas?  
a) if it does relate to performance, how many do I need to have open if I'm  
not going to open the whole range?

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**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:** [August 2, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/purpose-significance-of-port-ranges-9300-9400/19048/2 "2014-08-02T18:13:29Z")

</div>

1. No, there is one port in use per node (beside HTTP on port 9200). You  
can define the ports in the configuration.

2. First, do not configure ports for public access. You should set up your  
ES cluster only in a private network. The question if only port 9300 is  
"open" or more ports does not determine the performance.

3. As said, performance is a different topic. The number of ports open or  
in use does not correlate with performance (speed/throughput).

As a side note, 9300 seems like it was a random choice, there is no  
specific reason for this port number, you can choose any other port number  
that is available. According to IANA, the default ES ports 9200/9300 are  
reserved ports "wap-wsp" and "vrace" so if you want to declare your port  
number as "official", you might want to consult

[http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/](http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/)

for an unassigned port number to avoid conflicts.

Jörg

On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 6:26 PM, Matt Hughes [hughes.matt@gmail.com](mailto:hughes.matt@gmail.com) wrote:

> I'm running elasticsearch in a somewhat locked down environment and the  
> less ports I have open, the better.
> 
> I guess my questions boil down to:
> 
> 1. Why do you need multiple ports open in the 93xx range?
> 2. Will anything bad happen if I just have 9300 open? Will performance  
> suffer, and if so, in what areas?  
> a) if it does relate to performance, how many do I need to have open if  
> I'm not going to open the whole range?
> 
> --  
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups  
> "elasticsearch" group.  
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> To view this discussion on the web visit  
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> [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)  
> .  
> For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

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**Author:** ![mhughes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@mhughes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mhughes)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/purpose-significance-of-port-ranges-9300-9400/19048/3 "2014-08-02T18:19:33Z")

</div>

Thanks for the reply.

Ok, I guess this comment in the config still confuses me:

# Elasticsearch, by default, binds itself to the 0.0.0.0 address, and

listens

# on port [9200-9300] for HTTP traffic and on port [9300-9400] for

node-to-node

# communication.

_(the range means that if the port is busy, it will automatically# try the  
next port)_.

So based on your comments, the "is busy" comment really means "if some  
other app is bound to 9300, ES will automatically keep trying ports in this  
range until it can bind to one"? Does that jive with your understanding?

On Saturday, August 2, 2014 2:13:36 PM UTC-4, Jörg Prante wrote:

> 1. No, there is one port in use per node (beside HTTP on port 9200). You  
> can define the ports in the configuration.
> 
> 2. First, do not configure ports for public access. You should set up your  
> ES cluster only in a private network. The question if only port 9300 is  
> "open" or more ports does not determine the performance.
> 
> 3. As said, performance is a different topic. The number of ports open or  
> in use does not correlate with performance (speed/throughput).
> 
> As a side note, 9300 seems like it was a random choice, there is no  
> specific reason for this port number, you can choose any other port number  
> that is available. According to IANA, the default ES ports 9200/9300 are  
> reserved ports "wap-wsp" and "vrace" so if you want to declare your port  
> number as "official", you might want to consult
> 
> [Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry](http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/)
> 
> for an unassigned port number to avoid conflicts.
> 
> Jörg
> 
> On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 6:26 PM, Matt Hughes \<[hughe...@gmail.com](mailto:hughe...@gmail.com)  
> \<javascript:\>\> wrote:
> 
> > I'm running elasticsearch in a somewhat locked down environment and the  
> > less ports I have open, the better.
> > 
> > I guess my questions boil down to:
> > 
> > 1. Why do you need multiple ports open in the 93xx range?
> > 2. Will anything bad happen if I just have 9300 open? Will performance  
> > suffer, and if so, in what areas?  
> > a) if it does relate to performance, how many do I need to have open if  
> > I'm not going to open the whole range?
> > 
> > --  
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups  
> > "elasticsearch" group.  
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an  
> > email to [elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com) \<javascript:\>.  
> > To view this discussion on the web visit  
> > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com)  
> > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)  
> > .  
> > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mhughes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@mhughes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mhughes)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/purpose-significance-of-port-ranges-9300-9400/19048/4 "2014-08-02T18:29:22Z")

</div>

Found the relevant code and your description does appear to match up  
(NettyTransport):

```
    PortsRange portsRange = new PortsRange(port);
    final AtomicReference<Exception> lastException = new 

```

AtomicReference\<\>();  
boolean success = portsRange.iterate(new PortsRange.PortCallback() {  
@Override  
public boolean onPortNumber(int portNumber) {  
try {  
serverChannel = serverBootstrap.bind(new  
InetSocketAddress(hostAddress, portNumber));  
} catch (Exception e) {  
lastException.set(e);  
return false;  
}  
return true;  
}  
});  
if (!success) {  
throw new BindTransportException("Failed to bind to [" + port +  
"]", lastException.get());  
}

```
    logger.debug("Bound to address [{}]", 

```

serverChannel.getLocalAddress());

First port in the port range that is open gets bound. And this appears to  
only happen once. Thanks.

On Saturday, August 2, 2014 2:19:33 PM UTC-4, Matt Hughes wrote:

> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> Ok, I guess this comment in the config still confuses me:
> 
> # Elasticsearch, by default, binds itself to the 0.0.0.0 address, and
> 
> listens
> 
> # on port [9200-9300] for HTTP traffic and on port [9300-9400] for
> 
> node-to-node
> 
> # communication.
> 
> _(the range means that if the port is busy, it will automatically# try the  
> next port)_.
> 
> So based on your comments, the "is busy" comment really means "if some  
> other app is bound to 9300, ES will automatically keep trying ports in this  
> range until it can bind to one"? Does that jive with your understanding?
> 
> On Saturday, August 2, 2014 2:13:36 PM UTC-4, Jörg Prante wrote:
> 
> > 1. No, there is one port in use per node (beside HTTP on port 9200). You  
> > can define the ports in the configuration.
> > 
> > 2. First, do not configure ports for public access. You should set up  
> > your ES cluster only in a private network. The question if only port 9300  
> > is "open" or more ports does not determine the performance.
> > 
> > 3. As said, performance is a different topic. The number of ports open or  
> > in use does not correlate with performance (speed/throughput).
> > 
> > As a side note, 9300 seems like it was a random choice, there is no  
> > specific reason for this port number, you can choose any other port number  
> > that is available. According to IANA, the default ES ports 9200/9300 are  
> > reserved ports "wap-wsp" and "vrace" so if you want to declare your port  
> > number as "official", you might want to consult
> > 
> > [Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry](http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/)
> > 
> > for an unassigned port number to avoid conflicts.
> > 
> > Jörg
> > 
> > On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 6:26 PM, Matt Hughes [hughe...@gmail.com](mailto:hughe...@gmail.com) wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm running elasticsearch in a somewhat locked down environment and the  
> > > less ports I have open, the better.
> > > 
> > > I guess my questions boil down to:
> > > 
> > > 1. Why do you need multiple ports open in the 93xx range?
> > > 2. Will anything bad happen if I just have 9300 open? Will performance  
> > > suffer, and if so, in what areas?  
> > > a) if it does relate to performance, how many do I need to have open if  
> > > I'm not going to open the whole range?
> > > 
> > > --  
> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google  
> > > Groups "elasticsearch" group.  
> > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send  
> > > an email to [elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com).  
> > > To view this discussion on the web visit  
> > > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com)  
> > > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/39b917bf-fdf3-4c83-8df9-9075493f0f90%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)  
> > > .  
> > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

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**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, 1:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/purpose-significance-of-port-ranges-9300-9400/19048/5 "2017-07-06T01:11:24Z")

</div>