# Should dedicated master nodes and data nodes be considered separately? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [February 14, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-dedicated-master-nodes-and-data-nodes-be-considered-separately/75093 "2017-02-14T18:49:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 3
**Author:** ![sumo7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@sumo7](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sumo7)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-dedicated-master-nodes-and-data-nodes-be-considered-separately/75093/3 "2017-02-14T19:28:49Z")
The reason why I created three dedicated nodes is because of the following saying from [this doc](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-production-elasticsearch-cluster-on-ubuntu-14-04). > By default, every Elasticsearch node is configured to be a "master-eligible" data node, which means they store data (and perform resource-intensive operations) and have the potential to be elected as a master node. For a small cluster, this is usually fine; a large Elasticsearch cluster, however, should be configured with dedicated master nodes so that the master node's stability can't be compromised by intensive data node work. I was afraid of what's going to happen when my app's traffic increases in the future so I decided to use dedicated master nodes as described from the start. If I don't have to use dedicated master nodes, how should I handle the incoming sudden increase of data input? Let's say I create three master-eligible data nodes as my new cluster and my app's searching data input soars at one point. Do I need to add more master-eligible data nodes or just data nodes in this case? --- _[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-dedicated-master-nodes-and-data-nodes-be-considered-separately/75093)._