Resize a MarkLogic cluster

At any time, you can resize the cluster by using the Update Stack feature to change the instance type. Before you resize the cluster, you must hibernate the cluster by setting the NodesPerZone value to 0. After you resize the cluster, you must restart the cluster by resetting the NodesPerZone value to the previously set value, as described in Hibernating a MarkLogic Cluster.

Resizing a MarkLogic Cluster on AWS can be done horizontally and not just vertically (as described above), similar to how it is done with on-premise deployments. For changing the number of instances (horizontal scaling), use the Update Stack feature by changing the NodesPerZone setting on the CFT. Alternatively, you can use the auto-scaling groups. For more details, see Scaling Cluster Resources on EC2.

Data capacity can be resized in two different ways: resizing using AWS snapshot and resizing using MarkLogic's rebalancing feature. While vertical scale out is significantly easier on AWS versus on-premise deployments, note that MarkLogic requires at least some degree of horizontal scaling as high availability (HA) requires at least three nodes in a cluster. Whether you are scaling nodes or data capacity, horizontally or vertically, it is recommended that you test your scale out procedure thoroughly before implementing as well as take full backups of your data before making changes to your cluster.