# Using ES as a DB, no scoring, are there things to turn off? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [September 19, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-es-as-a-db-no-scoring-are-there-things-to-turn-off/9063 "2012-09-19T13:12:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andy\_Wick](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andy_wick/32/44017_2.png) [@Andy\_Wick](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Andy_Wick)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-es-as-a-db-no-scoring-are-there-things-to-turn-off/9063/1 "2012-09-19T13:12:14Z")
Something I've wondered about for a while for those of us using ES as a "searchable DB" are there things we should turn off? For example for any search query I never "boost" anything, always include a sort clause, and never use score results. I'm happy with the current results, but always trying to become more efficient I'm curious if there are things that I should disable related to scoring/boosting (or other non "DB" things) in my mappings/settings? What about omit\_norms, should I turn that on since it seems score related? Thanks, Andy -- ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-es-as-a-db-no-scoring-are-there-things-to-turn-off/9063/2 "2012-09-19T16:49:28Z")
By default, if you are sorting, then scoring is not computed (unless you enable track\_scores). Running your query as a filter with a match\_all query should accomplish the same goal with the additional benefit of being cacheable. Constant score query seems analogous, but I have never used it. Since you never use boost, you should omit norms on your fields. Norms are recorded into the index, so not only do they increase your index size, but will also use up memory once they are loaded. Cheers, Ivan On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 6:12 AM, Andy Wick [andywick@gmail.com](mailto:andywick@gmail.com) wrote: > Something I've wondered about for a while for those of us using ES as a > "searchable DB" are there things we should turn off? > > For example for any search query I never "boost" anything, always include a > sort clause, and never use score results. > > I'm happy with the current results, but always trying to become more > efficient I'm curious if there are things that I should disable related to > scoring/boosting (or other non "DB" things) in my mappings/settings? > What about omit\_norms, should I turn that on since it seems score related? > > Thanks, > Andy > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-es-as-a-db-no-scoring-are-there-things-to-turn-off/9063/3 "2012-09-19T17:31:50Z")
On Wed, 2012-09-19 at 09:49 -0700, Ivan Brusic wrote: > By default, if you are sorting, then scoring is not computed (unless > you enable track\_scores). Running your query as a filter with a > match\_all query should accomplish the same goal with the additional > benefit of being cacheable. Constant score query seems analogous, but > I have never used it. > > Since you never use boost, you should omit norms on your fields. Norms > are recorded into the index, so not only do they increase your index > size, but will also use up memory once they are loaded. Also disable the \_all field. clint -- ---
**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, 3:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-es-as-a-db-no-scoring-are-there-things-to-turn-off/9063/4 "2017-07-06T03:12:14Z")