content/operate/rs/7.8/databases/configure/shard-placement.md
In Redis Enterprise Software , the location of master and replica shards on the cluster nodes can impact the database and node performance. Master shards and their corresponding replica shards are always placed on separate nodes for data resiliency. The [shard placement policy]({{< relref "/operate/rs/7.8/databases/memory-performance/shard-placement-policy.md" >}}) helps to maintain optimal performance and resiliency.
{{< embed-md "shard-placement-intro.md" >}}
When you create a new cluster, the cluster configuration has a dense default shard placement policy.
When you create a database, this default policy is applied to the new database.
To see the current default shard placement policy, run rladmin info cluster:
{{< image filename="/images/rs/shard_placement_info_cluster.png" >}}
To change the default shard placement policy so that new databases are created with the sparse shard placement policy, run:
rladmin tune cluster default_shards_placement [ dense | sparse ]
To see the shard placement policy for a database in rladmin status.
{{< image filename="/images/rs/shard_placement_rladmin_status.png" >}}
To change the shard placement policy for a database, run:
rladmin tune db { db:<ID> | <database-name> } shards_placement { dense | sparse }