---
title: Dedicated Coordinating Nodes
description: Describes what AutoOps detects and surfaces with the Dedicated Coordinating Nodes insight: Search and indexing traffic might be concentrated on nodes that also hold data shards.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/autoops-insights/tree/main/elasticsearch/dedicated_coordinating_nodes
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
---

# Dedicated Coordinating Nodes
Search and indexing traffic might be concentrated on nodes that also hold data shards. In larger clusters, dedicated coordinating nodes route queries to the right data nodes and spread load more evenly.
<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  | Low                         |
| Scope     | Cluster                     |
| Domains   | performance, node-lifecycle |


## 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 data nodes count to introduce dedicated coordinating nodes | Integer | 5       |


## 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.

### It is recommended to add dedicated coordinating nodes


#### What was detected

_No description available._

#### Recommendations

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

<dropdown title="Add dedicated coordinating nodes">
  **Condition**: Always shown for this insight.Add two or three coordinating-only nodes and route searches and indexing through them to offload data nodes.
</dropdown>


#### Background and impact

Impact: Load will be distributed unevenly across the cluster.
Dedicated coordinating nodes relay search and indexing queries to the appropriate data nodes, which balances the load across the cluster.
In large clusters it is recommended to add coordinating nodes to optimize the load distribution across the cluster.