// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// * observability/logging/cluster-logging-log-store.adoc

[id="cluster-logging-elasticsearch-scaledown_{context}"]
= Scaling down Elasticsearch pods

Reducing the number of Elasticsearch pods in your cluster can result in data loss or Elasticsearch performance degradation. 

If you scale down, you should scale down by one pod at a time and allow the cluster to re-balance the shards and replicas. After the Elasticsearch health status returns to `green`, you can scale down by another pod.

[NOTE]
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If your Elasticsearch cluster is set to `ZeroRedundancy`, you should not scale down your Elasticsearch pods.
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