Modify Range Size in a Sharded Cluster

The default range size for a sharded cluster is 128 megabytes. This default range size works well for most deployments; however, if you notice that automatic migrations use more I/O than your hardware can handle, you may want to reduce the range size. A small range size leads to more rapid and frequent migrations. The allowed size is between 1 and 1024 megabytes, inclusive.

To modify the range size, use the following procedure:

1. Connect to any mongos in the cluster using mongosh.

2. Issue the following command to switch to the Config Database:

   use config

3. Issue the following command to store the global range size configuration value:

   db.settings.updateOne(
      { _id: "chunksize" },
      { $set: { _id: "chunksize", value: <sizeInMB> } },
      { upsert: true }
   )

The allowed range size is between 1 and 1024 megabytes, inclusive.

To set the chunk size for a specific collection, see configureCollectionBalancing.