# Slow bulk deletes **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [December 4, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404 "2018-12-04T17:09:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ravib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ravib/32/73896_2.png) [@ravib](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ravib)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/1 "2018-12-04T17:09:44Z")
Hello I am using elasticsearch 5.6 on a 3 node configuration, lately my bulk delete requests are being processed very very slow, it took almost 2 mins to delete 200 records, my elastic cluster looks fine, nothing specific in error logs, any suggestions on what it could be ? index settings: shards: 50, refresh interval 5sec, translog durability async ---
**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:** [December 4, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/2 "2018-12-04T22:42:12Z")
How many indices, shards, docs. ---
**Author:** ![ravib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ravib/32/73896_2.png) [@ravib](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ravib)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 10:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/3 "2018-12-04T22:47:09Z")
on cluster: around 4000 shards, 80 indices, 3 nodes, master is also a data node ---
**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:** [December 4, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/4 "2018-12-04T22:52:17Z")
That's a lot of shards for that many indices and nodes. How many indices are you deleting from with that 200 docs? ---
**Author:** ![ravib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ravib/32/73896_2.png) [@ravib](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ravib)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 11:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/5 "2018-12-04T23:08:00Z")
the entire bulk request only has delete operations all on the same index ---
**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:** [December 4, 2018, 11:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/6 "2018-12-04T23:08:40Z")
How much data does the cluster hold? ---
**Author:** ![ravib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ravib/32/73896_2.png) [@ravib](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ravib)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/7 "2018-12-04T23:12:02Z")
300GB in total, used approx 25% ---
**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:** [December 4, 2018, 11:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/8 "2018-12-04T23:14:34Z")
Ok, way too many shards then. You need to reduce that amount and you should find things will speed up. ---
**Author:** ![ravib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ravib/32/73896_2.png) [@ravib](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ravib)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 11:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/9 "2018-12-04T23:22:07Z")
sure will try it out. thank you! @warkolm . btw how many shards would you suggest per index in this configuration, any standard ? like better to have these many shards if you have these many nodes ? i have another configuration with 14 nodes and 3 masters and 11 data nodes ---
**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:** [December 4, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/10 "2018-12-04T23:27:35Z")
It really depends on your use case, but I would be aiming for 30-50GB per shard. ---
**Author:** ![ravib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ravib/32/73896_2.png) [@ravib](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ravib)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/11 "2018-12-04T23:32:40Z")
okay, so since i only have 300gb which is 100 gb per node, so I would only have 10 shards for the entire cluster ? also I have 4000 on the entire cluster, for the specific index an dealing with, it has 50 shards ---
**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:** [December 4, 2018, 11:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/12 "2018-12-04T23:49:57Z")
> [@ravib](#): > > also I have 4000 on the entire cluster, for the specific index an dealing with, it has 50 shards How large is that index? ---
**Author:** ![ravib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ravib/32/73896_2.png) [@ravib](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ravib)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/13 "2018-12-04T23:51:11Z")
one replica, so shards 50 X 2 docs 100k, size 350 mb ---
**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:** [December 4, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/14 "2018-12-04T23:57:55Z")
That's waaaaay too many shards. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 11:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/slow-bulk-deletes/159404/15 "2019-01-01T23:58:02Z")
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