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Elasticsearch 7 & 8 on Windows memory configuration

New Windows deployments come with Elasticsearch, which by default uses 50% of server memory on initial installation. For a deployment on the minimum hardware, the suggested Elasticsearch allocation is 4 GB. These steps change the Elasticsearch memory allocation (up or down) on Windows.

Change the allocation via the service manager​

  1. Stop the Informer service and any Informer processes. Confirm they are all stopped in Task Manager, ending any remaining Node.js processes.

  2. Open an elevated PowerShell and change to the Informer install root, then into the Elasticsearch bin directory (replace X.x.x with your Elasticsearch version):

    elasticsearch\elasticsearch-X.x.x\bin

  3. Launch the Elasticsearch service manager, passing your Elasticsearch service name (find it in the Windows Services manager, under the Elasticsearch service's properties):

    .\elasticsearch-service.bat manager <serviceName>

  4. On the Java tab, set both Initial memory pool and Maximum memory pool to the same value. For minimum-hardware deployments, this is 4096 MB.

  5. Click OK, then stop and start the Elasticsearch Windows service to apply the change.

  6. Start the Informer service.