# Shard Balancing based on Available Heap Space

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-balancing-based-on-available-heap-space/60938>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 19, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-balancing-based-on-available-heap-space/60938 "2016-09-19T20:02:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jumana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8edcca/32.png) [@Jumana](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jumana)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-balancing-based-on-available-heap-space/60938/1 "2016-09-19T20:02:00Z")

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I've one question about shard balancing on ES. Is the algorithm smart enough to figure out the capabilities of ES instance? For instance if one instance has lower heap space than others in a cluster, would it give preference to the bigger instance ?

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-balancing-based-on-available-heap-space/60938/2 "2016-09-19T20:07:30Z")

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It is not.

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**Author:** ![Jumana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8edcca/32.png) [@Jumana](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jumana)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-balancing-based-on-available-heap-space/60938/3 "2016-09-19T20:14:55Z")

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Thanks a lot for the quick response.

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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 5, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-balancing-based-on-available-heap-space/60938/4 "2017-07-05T22:19:02Z")

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Closed on July 5, 2017, 10:19pm UTC