Apache Solr index file size, shards and filesizes

I have just inherited several machines running SOLR and just about figured out how it works. Would an index > 500g be considered large and does anyone have any good link开发者_C百科s on how to manage these indexes ? I also need to define some new fields in the schema.xml - is this feasible on indexes of this size ? Should I look at sharding ?

many thanks ben

Would an index > 500g be considered large

It's pretty large, yes, but that doesn't mean anything on its own. What really matters is that it performs adequately for your needs.

how to manage these indexes

What concretely do you want to do?

need to define some new fields in the schema.xml - is this feasible on indexes of this size ?

Yes, the procedure to add fields is the same regardless of index size.

Should I look at sharding

Probably, but it ultimately depends on whether the index performs adequately or not as it is now. If it performs adequately without sharding, then you don't need sharding.