# Scaling Factors **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [October 16, 2012, 5:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/scaling-factors/9367 "2012-10-16T05:29:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_Hazen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/45deac/32.png) [@Jim\_Hazen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jim_Hazen)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 5:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/scaling-factors/9367/1 "2012-10-16T05:29:58Z")
What are the top scaling factors for growing into a large ES cluster? My operations department has some concerns around how we'd grow the size of an ES cluster to support hundreds or thousands of nodes. Does an ES cluster require a non-blocking network? They define this to be a network such that all nodes are linked by uniform throughput and latency. They see ES' rack aware configuration and worry a little having run into problems with Hadoop clusters in the past falling over as the fast talking intra-rack nodes are able to saturate the inter-rack data channels causing the overall system to hit a wall (suddenly). They've also been burned by many hundreds of nodes saturating a network trying to keep state synchronized. From what I can tell the master servers ought to keep the state chatter down. Would someone in the know, or someone with experience with large ES deployments mind describing what the important scaling factors of large ES deployments are and at about what thresholds I'll be likely to hit them? Thanks, Jim -- ---
**Author:** ![radu\_gheorghe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/radu_gheorghe/32/556_2.png) [@radu\_gheorghe](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/radu_gheorghe)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 12:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/scaling-factors/9367/2 "2012-10-16T12:03:51Z")
Hello Jim, I wouldn't worry about the chat between nodes during "normal" operation, but when ES is rebalancing. For example, when you add or remove a node. In my experience, that dwarfs the regular traffic, even if you have lots of queries or indexing. Depending on the size of your data, you can estimate what kind of traffic you'd have when rebalancing. So if I were you I would take the worst-case scenario, do the math, add a buffer for my peace of mind, then see if the network can handle it. ## Best regards, Radu [http://sematext.com/](http://sematext.com/) -- Elasticsearch -- Solr -- Lucene On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 8:29 AM, Jim Hazen [jimhazen2000@gmail.com](mailto:jimhazen2000@gmail.com) wrote: > What are the top scaling factors for growing into a large ES cluster? My > operations department has some concerns around how we'd grow the size of an > ES cluster to support hundreds or thousands of nodes. Does an ES cluster > require a non-blocking network? They define this to be a network such that > all nodes are linked by uniform throughput and latency. They see ES' rack > aware configuration and worry a little having run into problems with Hadoop > clusters in the past falling over as the fast talking intra-rack nodes are > able to saturate the inter-rack data channels causing the overall system to > hit a wall (suddenly). They've also been burned by many hundreds of nodes > saturating a network trying to keep state synchronized. > > From what I can tell the master servers ought to keep the state chatter > down. > > Would someone in the know, or someone with experience with large ES > deployments mind describing what the important scaling factors of large ES > deployments are and at about what thresholds I'll be likely to hit them? > > Thanks, > Jim > > -- -- ---
**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, 3:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/scaling-factors/9367/3 "2017-07-06T03:08:32Z")