---
title: Max shards per node
description: Describes what AutoOps detects and surfaces with the Max shards per node insight: The configured maximum shards per node exceeds the recommended default of 1000.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/autoops-insights/tree/main/elasticsearch/max_shards_per_node
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
---

# Max shards per node
The configured maximum shards per node exceeds the recommended default of 1000. Raising this limit beyond the default allows more shards to accumulate per node, which increases memory overhead for shard metadata and slows searches that fan out across many shards.
<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   | configuration, shard-allocation, stability |


## 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 configured maximum shards per node is higher than the recommended default


#### What was detected

`cluster.max_shards_per_node` is set to 2000, which is above the recommended default of 1000.

#### Recommendations

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

<dropdown title="Lower the maximum shards per node to the recommended value">
  **Condition**: Always shown for this insight.Set `cluster.max_shards_per_node` to 1000 to bring the cluster back within the recommended shard budget. Review index and shard design first so future growth stays within the limit, and prefer right-sizing indices and adding nodes over raising this setting.
  ```json

  {
    "persistent": {
      "cluster.max_shards_per_node": "1000"
    }
  }
  ```

  <note>
    Requires the `manage cluster` privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
  </note>
</dropdown>


#### Background and impact

Impact: many shards degrades indexing and search performance and can destabilize the cluster.
Elasticsearch allows you to set a limit on the number of shards per node.
While you can increase this limit, it is not recommended to do so, since having many shards on the node slows down search operations. This is because the responses need to be collated across many shards.
Furthermore, Elasticsearch must maintain data about the mappings and the shard state in memory, so having many shards unnecessarily ties up cluster resources, leaving less available for indexing and search.