Recipe — SIZING_ONLY
Concrete instance class + node count + storage formula. Not a migration plan, not a full assessment, not a 9-section report. The user wants to know what to provision and why in as few words as possible.
When to dispatch here
Use this recipe when the user asks one of:
- "What instance class should I use for X GB of data / Y QPS?"
- "We have N nodes of
r5.4xlargeon self-managed — what's the AOS equivalent?" - "Size this cluster for 200 GB of logs / 50M vectors at dim 768."
- "How many
r7g.large.searchdo I need for 80 GB indexed?" - "What's the right node count for
<workload>?"
The hallmark: there is a workload to size, but no migration question, no schema paste, no 'should I use OpenSearch' framing. The user already chose AOS — they want a baseline today.
Detection signals
| Signal | Example |
|---|---|
| Capacity ask without migration verbs | "size for", "provision for", "what should I run" |
| Specific scalar inputs | data volume in GB/TB, doc count, QPS, vector count + dim |
| Source cluster spec they want mapped | "we run 6 × r5.2xlarge today" |
No schema.xml, no ES mapping, no "translate this query", no traffic-and-readiness mix |
— |
| Vector-search collection sizing without ingestion-pipeline questions | "50M × 768 vectors" |
If the user pastes an _cat/indices, traffic numbers, AND asks for a migration plan → that is FULL_ASSESSMENT, not SIZING_ONLY. If they ask "Managed vs Serverless" → COMPARATIVE_DECISION. If they ask "should I even use OpenSearch for 200 MB of Postgres rows" → ANTI_PATTERN_PUSHBACK.
Required output template
Produce exactly these four blocks. No headings beyond what is shown — keep the response tight.
1. Detected shape line (one sentence)
Detected shape: SIZING_ONLY — baseline for
<source_size><workload_type>on Amazon OpenSearch Service.
2. Baseline (one sentence + bullets)
Lead with a single concrete recommendation:
*Run 3 ×
r7g.large.searchdata nodes + 3 ×m7g.large.searchdedicated cluster managers across 3 AZs, 1 replica, EBS gp3 sized to<storage_number> GiB per data node.*
Then 3-5 bullets with numeric justification — instance choice rationale, replica setting, cluster-manager sizing rationale, storage rounding, AZ count.
3. Storage math (inline derivation)
ALWAYS show the formula and substitute numbers, even when inputs are estimated:
min_storage = source × (1 + replicas) × 1.45
= 80 GiB × (1 + 1) × 1.45
= 232 GiB total cluster storage
≈ 78 GiB per data node (3 nodes), round to 100 GiB gp3If source data is unknown, present the tiered band instead (see below) — never invent a single number.
4. References (one line, max ~3 URLs)
References:
bp-instances·bp-sharding· https://calculator.aws.
That's it. No other sections.
Match-source rule (CRITICAL)
When the user names their existing self-managed/EC2 cluster, match the source profile instead of falling back to a greenfield baseline:
- 6 ×
r5.2xlargeself-managed → recommend 6 ×r7g.2xlarge.search(Graviton equivalent), not "3 ×r7g.largeis our default." - 4 ×
m5.xlargeself-managed → recommend 4 ×m7g.xlarge.search. - The customer has already proven their working set fits that RAM-to-data ratio. Downsize only if you can show the source was over-provisioned (e.g., JVMMemoryPressure consistently <40%).
Only fall back to "3 × r7g.large.search" greenfield baseline when the source size is <100 GB AND the user provided no source cluster.
Tiered band sizing (UNKNOWN inputs)
When source size is not specified, do NOT guess. Present three bands and ask the user to confirm:
| Band | Source data | Suggested baseline | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | <100 GiB | 3 × r7g.large.search data + 3 × m7g.large.search cluster manager, 1 replica, gp3 100 GiB/node |
Smallest prod-credible footprint |
| Medium | 100–500 GiB | 3 × r7g.xlarge.search data + 3 × m7g.large.search cluster manager, 1 replica, gp3 sized via formula |
Most common SMB workload |
| Large | >500 GiB | 6+ × r7g.2xlarge.search data + 3 × m7g.large.search cluster manager, OR1 if write-heavy logs |
Consider OR1/UltraWarm tiering |
Always close the tiered version with: "Confirm source size and I will collapse to one recommendation."
NOT REQUIRED — explicitly OMIT
Do NOT produce any of the following in a SIZING_ONLY answer:
- Timeline & Resourcing — REMOVED FROM SUITE. Never write "engineer-weeks", "Phase 1 / Phase 2", "T+0 / T+30 days", or any sequencing language.
- Executive Summary, Source Inventory, Target Topology, Migration Path, Readiness Checklist, Risk Register, Citations section, Open Questions.
- Migration verbs: "cutover", "Historical Data Migration", "snapshot", "_reindex from remote", "Migration Assistant for Amazon OpenSearch Service".
- Customer-specific trade-off narrative ("if your team prefers...", "if you have RIs in...").
- Cost discussion beyond the calculator.aws link. Never write "$X/month".
- JVM heap tuning advice (heap is service-managed; mention only in passing if the user asks).
- Schema conversion, query DSL examples, FGAC setup.
- Long instance-family compendium — pick one family and move on.
If the user asks for any of the above, route them: "That's outside SIZING_ONLY — for migration path see FULL_ASSESSMENT, for cost open https://calculator.aws."
Worked exemplar (~250 words)
User asks: "We have 80 GB of product-search data on a self-managed Elasticsearch 7.10 cluster running 4 × r5.xlarge. What should we run on AOS?"
Response:
Detected shape: SIZING_ONLY — baseline for 80 GiB product-search workload on Amazon OpenSearch Service, sized to match an existing 4 × r5.xlarge source.
Run 4 × r7g.xlarge.search data nodes + 3 × m7g.large.search dedicated cluster managers across 3 AZs, 1 replica, EBS gp3 at 80 GiB per data node.
- Match-source: the existing 4 ×
r5.xlargealready proves the working set fits that RAM-to-data ratio; mapping to Graviton (r7g.xlarge.search) preserves the profile and gains ~20% price/perf. - Master nodes: required because data-node count ≥ 3;
m7g.large.search× 3 covers up to 30 nodes / 15K shards on OS 2.17+ — well above this footprint. - Replicas = 1 (one primary copy + one replica); 3 AZs gives plain Multi-AZ (99.9% SLA). Multi-AZ-with-Standby (99.99% SLA) is NOT enabled here — it requires a multiple-of-3 data-node count and ≥ 2 replicas (see gotcha #19); this 4-node / 1-replica layout does not qualify. Re-shape to 3 (or 6) data nodes with 2 replicas if Standby is required.
- Shards: for a search workload, target 10–30 GiB per shard. 80 GiB / 20 GiB → 4 primary shards, aligned to data-node count. Final layout: 4 primary × 2 (1 replica) = 8 shards across 4 nodes.
- Heap is service-managed — sized automatically at 50% of RAM, capped at 32 GiB. Not a customer knob.
min_storage = source × (1 + replicas) × 1.45
= 80 GiB × (1 + 1) × 1.45
= 232 GiB cluster total
≈ 58 GiB per data node (4 nodes); round to 80 GiB gp3References: bp-instances · bp-sharding · https://calculator.aws.
Pre-emit checklist (specific to SIZING_ONLY)
Tick every box before sending. If any box is unticked, fix the response — don't ship it.
- First sentence is the shape declaration, not a greeting, not a restatement of the question.
- Baseline is one sentence with instance class + count + AZ count + replica count + storage number.
- Storage formula is shown with numbers substituted, not just stated abstractly. Even if source size is a band, at least one band has the math worked.
- Match-source rule applied when user named their current cluster — Graviton equivalent of their current family at the same size, not a greenfield default.
- Tiered bands used (and only used) when source size is genuinely unknown.
- Cluster managers explicitly addressed — present when ≥3 data nodes or ≥10 indexes; called out as
m7g.large.search× 3 (or larger per the cluster-manager-sizing table insizing.md). - Current-generation Graviton by default (
r7g/r8gfamily).r6gonly with explicit user justification. - No dollar figures. Single calculator.aws link is the only cost reference.
- No Timeline & Resourcing. No "engineer-weeks", no phased rollout, no "T+N days".
- No migration content. No Historical Data Migration, snapshot,
_reindex.remote, Migration Assistant for Amazon OpenSearch Service. - No 9-section scaffold. No Executive Summary, no Risk Register, no Readiness Checklist.
- References footer is one line with at most three URLs (bp-instances, bp-sharding, calculator.aws).
- Heap mentioned (if at all) as service-managed, never as a customer-tunable knob.
- Total response ≤ ~300 words unless tiered bands forced expansion. If you wrote more, you drifted into FULL_ASSESSMENT — trim back.