but it shouldn't matter b/c you're using hashed shard keys) 1) Shard the empty collection over the shard key { location : 1, hash : 1 } 2) run db.runCommand({ split : "<coll>", middle : { "location":"DEN", "hash": "8000...0" }}) 3) run db.runCommand({ split : "<coll>", middle : { "location":"SC", "hash": "0000...0" }}) 4) move those empty chunks to whatever shards you want - Greg Studer Possible Solutions/Workarounds #1 Manual Chunk Pre-Splitting http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Splitting+Shard+Chunks https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mongodb-user/tYBFKSMM3cU/TiYtoOiNMgEJ http://blog.zawodny.com/2011/03/06/mongodb-pre-splitting-for-faster-data-loading-and-importing/ Monday, April 2, 2012