30. 08. 2024 Juergen Vigna Log-SIEM, NetEye, Unified Monitoring

Monitor your Elasticsearch Shards Count

Elasticsearch limits the number of open shards per node with the max_shards_per_node cluster setting, which defaults to 1000. The limit on the total number of shards is then calculated from this setting with this formula:

total_max_number_of_shards = cluster.max_shards_per_node * number of non-frozen data nodes


If the total number of shards is reached either by a single node or multiple nodes, then no new shards are written. To avoid this behavior you should monitor these values and take action ahead of time, by setting a higher per node value or by cleaning up (e.g., deleting) shards/indexes.

To help you do this I wrote a plugin, which you can download here. You should add a service to your monitoring setup like Elasticsearch_Shards_Status on any one of your Elasticsearch cluster nodes, which calls a command like this:

/neteye/shared/monitoring/plugins/check_elasticsearch_shards.sh -N $host.name$ -w 90 -c 95

This will then check if you reach the warning or critical value for the possible total number of shards and/or for those on the Node-Name you specified. Please note that the Node-Name has to be the name with which the node is registered in the Elasticsearch cluster.

These Solutions are Engineered by Humans

Did you find this article interesting? Does it match your skill set? Our customers often present us with problems that need customized solutions. In fact, we’re currently hiring for roles just like this and others here at Würth Phoenix.

Juergen Vigna

Juergen Vigna

NetEye Solution Architect at Würth Phoenix
I have over 20 years of experience in the IT branch. After first experiences in the field of software development for public transport companies, I finally decided to join the young and growing team of Würth Phoenix. Initially, I was responsible for the internal Linux/Unix infrastructure and the management of CVS software. Afterwards, my main challenge was to establish the meanwhile well-known IT System Management Solution WÜRTHPHOENIX NetEye. As a Product Manager I started building NetEye from scratch, analyzing existing open source models, extending and finally joining them into one single powerful solution. After that, my job turned into a passion: Constant developments, customer installations and support became a matter of personal. Today I use my knowledge as a NetEye Senior Consultant as well as NetEye Solution Architect at Würth Phoenix.

Author

Juergen Vigna

I have over 20 years of experience in the IT branch. After first experiences in the field of software development for public transport companies, I finally decided to join the young and growing team of Würth Phoenix. Initially, I was responsible for the internal Linux/Unix infrastructure and the management of CVS software. Afterwards, my main challenge was to establish the meanwhile well-known IT System Management Solution WÜRTHPHOENIX NetEye. As a Product Manager I started building NetEye from scratch, analyzing existing open source models, extending and finally joining them into one single powerful solution. After that, my job turned into a passion: Constant developments, customer installations and support became a matter of personal. Today I use my knowledge as a NetEye Senior Consultant as well as NetEye Solution Architect at Würth Phoenix.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Archive