Disk watermarks wrong configuration
Elastic Cloud Hosted lets you manage and configure one or more deployments of the versioned Elastic Stack, hosted on Elastic Cloud. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes extends Kubernetes orchestration capabilities to allow you to deploy and manage components of the Elastic Stack. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes. Elastic Cloud Enterprise is a self-managed orchestration platform for deploying and managing the Elastic Stack at scale. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes. Self-managed deployments are Elastic Stack deployments managed without the assistance of an orchestrator. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.
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ECK
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Self-managed
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One or more disk watermark thresholds are misconfigured, including possibly the frozen flood-stage setting. Inconsistent or invalid thresholds can trigger unnecessary shard moves, put indices into read-only mode too early or too late, or leave frozen nodes without appropriate disk-pressure protection.
For a complete list of insights, refer to AutoOps insights.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Component | Elasticsearch |
| Severity | Medium |
| Scope | Node |
| Domains | configuration, disk-storage, stability |
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.
Current low watermark: 85%.
Current high watermark: 90%.
Current flood-stage watermark: 95%.
Current frozen flood-stage watermark: 95%.
Maximum node disk size: 500 GB.
AutoOps shows different recommendations depending on how their conditions match your deployment or cluster.
Change disk watermark settings
Condition: Shown when any of low, high, flood-stage, or frozen flood-stage watermark config is missing or invalid (frozen flood-stage coverage pending Beats prerequisite elastic/beats#52341).
Update cluster disk watermark settings to match your capacity plan. Use the action below.
PUT _cluster/settings{ "persistent": { "cluster.routing.allocation.disk.watermark.low": "85%", "cluster.routing.allocation.disk.watermark.high": "90%", "cluster.routing.allocation.disk.watermark.flood_stage": "95%" } }
Requires the manage cluster privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
Elasticsearch uses three standard watermark thresholds (low, high, flood stage) plus a separate frozen flood-stage threshold when frozen-tier nodes are present. Misconfiguration of any of these thresholds can lead to:
- Unnecessary shard relocations that increase cluster load.
- Indices entering read-only mode too early (absolute values larger than a node's disk) or too late (thresholds set too high).
- Frozen nodes missing appropriate disk-pressure guardrails if the frozen flood-stage setting is invalid or absent.
Use percentage-based watermarks when nodes have different disk sizes, such as in hot-warm-cold or frozen-tier deployments. Check that absolute-size thresholds do not exceed the smallest node's disk. Ensure the frozen flood-stage setting is present and valid if your cluster includes frozen-tier nodes.