---
title: Coordinating node underused
description: Describes what AutoOps detects and surfaces with the Coordinating node underused insight: Search traffic on one or more coordinating nodes stays well below what you would expect for dedicated coordinators.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/autoops-insights/tree/main/elasticsearch/coordinating_node_underused
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Enterprise
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted
  - Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes
  - Elasticsearch
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted: Generally available
  - Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes: Generally available
  - Elastic Cloud Enterprise: Generally available
  - Self-managed Elastic deployments: Generally available
---

# Coordinating node underused
Search traffic on one or more coordinating nodes stays well below what you would expect for dedicated coordinators. Clients might be hitting data nodes directly, leaving coordinators idle and adding coordination work on data tiers.
<note>
  For a complete list of insights, refer to [AutoOps insights](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/autoops-insights/tree/main/elasticsearch).
</note>


## Insight details


| Field     | Value                             |
|-----------|-----------------------------------|
| Component | Elasticsearch                     |
| Severity  | Medium                            |
| Scope     | Cluster                           |
| Domains   | performance, resource-utilization |


## Customization settings

You can customize these settings to adjust when AutoOps detects this event and presents the insight. Refer to [AutoOps event settings](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/tree/main/deploy-manage/monitor/autoops/ec-autoops-event-settings) for details.
The default customization settings are:

| Setting                                               | Type    | Default |
|-------------------------------------------------------|---------|---------|
| Minimum search completed count on a coordinating node | Integer | `1000`  |


## Example: What you might see in AutoOps

The following is an example of what you might see when this insight is triggered. Real insights use live data and links from your deployment or cluster.

### The search requests count is low on the following coordinating nodes: es-data-01


#### What was detected

Completed search count is 12 on coordinating node es-data-01, below the configured minimum of 1000.

#### Recommendations

<note>
  AutoOps shows different recommendations depending on how their conditions match your deployment or cluster.
</note>

<dropdown title="Check request routing">
  **Condition**: Always shown for this insight.Verify applications send requests to coordinating nodes, not directly to data nodes.
</dropdown>


#### Background and impact

Coordinating nodes distribute search and indexing requests across data nodes. When client applications connect directly to data nodes instead of dedicated coordinators, coordinating-only nodes see little traffic. That adds coordination work to data tiers and can leave dedicated coordinators underused.

## Guide

[Node settings](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/elasticsearch/tree/main/reference/elasticsearch/configuration-reference/node-settings#node-roles)