Temporal Cluster Sizing

Guidance for sizing Temporal clusters based on workload requirements.

Key Sizing Factors

Factor	Impact	Cannot Change
History Shards	Workflow parallelism	Yes (set at creation)
History Replicas	Throughput, availability	No
Matching Replicas	Task dispatch rate	No
Frontend Replicas	API request rate	No
Database Size	History storage	No

History Shards

Critical: History shards cannot be changed after cluster creation.

Shards determine maximum workflow parallelism. Each workflow belongs to one shard.

Sizing Guidelines

Concurrent Workflows	Recommended Shards
< 10,000	128
10,000 - 100,000	256
100,000 - 500,000	512
500,000 - 2,000,000	1024
> 2,000,000	2048 or 4096

Calculation Formula

shards = ceil(max_concurrent_workflows / 1000) * safety_factor

# Round up to nearest power of 2
# safety_factor = 2-4x for growth

Example: Expecting 50,000 concurrent workflows with 3x growth:

base = 50,000 / 1000 = 50
with_growth = 50 * 3 = 150
nearest_power_of_2 = 256 shards

Shard Distribution

Shards distribute across history service replicas:

shards_per_replica = total_shards / history_replicas

# Example: 512 shards, 4 replicas = 128 shards/replica

More replicas = better distribution = higher throughput.

Service Sizing

Frontend Service

Handles API requests, authentication, rate limiting.

Load Level	Replicas	CPU	Memory
Low (<100 rps)	1-2	500m	1Gi
Medium (100-1000 rps)	3	1	2Gi
High (1000-5000 rps)	5	2	4Gi
Very High (>5000 rps)	10+	4	8Gi

History Service

Manages workflow state and event history.

Shards	Replicas	CPU/replica	Memory/replica
128	2	1	2Gi
256	3	2	4Gi
512	4-6	2	4Gi
1024	8-12	4	8Gi
2048	16-24	4	8Gi

Matching Service

Dispatches tasks to workers.

Task Rate	Replicas	CPU	Memory
Low (<1000/s)	2	500m	1Gi
Medium (1000-10000/s)	3	1	2Gi
High (>10000/s)	5+	2	4Gi

Worker Service (Internal)

Handles internal system workflows. Scale with cluster size:

Cluster Size	Replicas	CPU	Memory
Small	1	200m	256Mi
Medium	1	500m	512Mi
Large	2	1	1Gi

Database Sizing

PostgreSQL Recommendations

Workflow Volume	CPU	Memory	Storage	IOPS
< 100K workflows	2	8GB	100GB	3000
100K-1M workflows	4	16GB	500GB	6000
1M-10M workflows	8	32GB	1TB	12000
> 10M workflows	16+	64GB+	2TB+	20000+

Storage Calculation

storage_per_workflow = avg_history_events * event_size
                     = 100 events * 1KB = 100KB

total_storage = workflows * storage_per_workflow * retention_multiplier
              = 1,000,000 * 100KB * 1.5 = 150GB

Retention: Configure appropriate workflow retention to manage storage.

Elasticsearch Sizing

For visibility queries (optional but recommended):

Indexed Workflows	Nodes	CPU/node	Memory/node	Storage/node
< 1M	3	1	2Gi	50Gi
1M-10M	3	2	4Gi	200Gi
> 10M	5+	4	8Gi	500Gi

Configuration Templates

Small Cluster (Dev/Test)

server:
  config:
    numHistoryShards: 128
  replicaCount:
    frontend: 1
    history: 1
    matching: 1
    worker: 1
  resources:
    frontend:
      requests: {cpu: "250m", memory: "512Mi"}
    history:
      requests: {cpu: "500m", memory: "1Gi"}
    matching:
      requests: {cpu: "250m", memory: "512Mi"}

Medium Cluster (Production Start)

server:
  config:
    numHistoryShards: 256
  replicaCount:
    frontend: 3
    history: 3
    matching: 3
    worker: 1
  resources:
    frontend:
      requests: {cpu: "500m", memory: "1Gi"}
      limits: {cpu: "2", memory: "4Gi"}
    history:
      requests: {cpu: "1", memory: "2Gi"}
      limits: {cpu: "4", memory: "8Gi"}
    matching:
      requests: {cpu: "500m", memory: "1Gi"}
      limits: {cpu: "2", memory: "4Gi"}

Large Cluster (High Volume)

server:
  config:
    numHistoryShards: 1024
  replicaCount:
    frontend: 5
    history: 10
    matching: 5
    worker: 2
  resources:
    frontend:
      requests: {cpu: "2", memory: "4Gi"}
      limits: {cpu: "4", memory: "8Gi"}
    history:
      requests: {cpu: "4", memory: "8Gi"}
      limits: {cpu: "8", memory: "16Gi"}
    matching:
      requests: {cpu: "2", memory: "4Gi"}
      limits: {cpu: "4", memory: "8Gi"}

Scaling Guidelines

Horizontal Scaling

Scale replicas when:

• CPU utilization > 70% sustained
• Memory utilization > 80%
• Request latency p99 > SLA
• Task backlog growing

Vertical Scaling

Increase resources when:

• Replica count at practical limit
• Database connection pooling maxed
• GC pressure affecting latency

Monitoring for Sizing Decisions

Key metrics to watch:

# History service load
sum(rate(temporal_persistence_requests_total[5m])) by (operation)

# Task latency (indicates matching capacity)
histogram_quantile(0.99, rate(temporal_schedule_to_start_latency_bucket[5m]))

# Workflow throughput
sum(rate(temporal_workflow_completed_total[5m]))

# Shard distribution
temporal_history_shard_count

Common Sizing Mistakes

Mistake	Impact	Solution
Too few shards	Cannot scale later	Start with more shards
Undersized history	Latency spikes	Increase memory, replicas
Single frontend	Single point of failure	Minimum 2 for HA
No Elasticsearch	Slow visibility queries	Enable for production

Additional Resources

Reference Files

For detailed sizing calculations, consult:

• references/sizing-calculator.md - Detailed sizing formulas
• references/benchmark-results.md - Performance benchmark data