# Running Multiple Elasticsearch Nodes per VM to Bypass 32 GB Heap Limit Best Practice

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/running-multiple-elasticsearch-nodes-per-vm-to-bypass-32-gb-heap-limit-best-practice/383269>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** docker\
**Created:** [November 6, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/running-multiple-elasticsearch-nodes-per-vm-to-bypass-32-gb-heap-limit-best-practice/383269 "2025-11-06T12:59:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![YousefNein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/yousefnein/32/145549_2.png) [@YousefNein](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/YousefNein)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/running-multiple-elasticsearch-nodes-per-vm-to-bypass-32-gb-heap-limit-best-practice/383269/1 "2025-11-06T12:59:45Z")

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I understand that a single Elasticsearch node shouldn’t have more than ~32 GB of JVM heap, but can I run multiple Elasticsearch containers (Let’s say 2) on the same machine with their heap set to 32 GB whilst having the host machine it’s running on more than 128 GiB RAM?

Why or why not?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

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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:** [November 6, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/running-multiple-elasticsearch-nodes-per-vm-to-bypass-32-gb-heap-limit-best-practice/383269/2 "2025-11-06T13:14:39Z")

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Yes, naturally you can do that. This is what e.g. Elastic Cloud does.
