diff --git a/doc/sphinx/reference/shard.rst b/doc/sphinx/reference/shard.rst
index aa003ae0d6d956fbe8d91b92a53b43deb9a48f07..dbb9ec5ac625fcd54961c77b7c4f3836e59ea9bb 100644
--- a/doc/sphinx/reference/shard.rst
+++ b/doc/sphinx/reference/shard.rst
@@ -4,20 +4,276 @@
.. module:: shard
-With `sharding`_,
-the tuples of a tuple set are distributed
-to multiple nodes, with a Tarantool database server on each node. With this arrangement,
-each server is handling only a subset of the total data, so larger loads can be
-handled by simply adding more computers to a network.
+With sharding, the tuples of a tuple set are distributed to multiple nodes,
+with a Tarantool database server on each node. With this arrangement,
+each server is handling only a subset of the total data,
+so larger loads can be handled by simply adding more computers to a network.
-The Tarantool shard package has facilities
-for creating or redistributing or cleaning up shards, as well as analogues for the
-data-manipulation functions of the box library (select, insert, replace, update, delete).
+The Tarantool shard package has facilities for creating shards,
+as well as analogues for the data-manipulation functions of the box library
+(select, insert, replace, update, delete).
-Some details are `On the shard section of github`_.
+First some terminology: |br|
+**Consistent Hash** ...
+The shard package distributes according to a hash algorithm,
+that is, it applies a hash function to a tuple's primary-key value
+in order to decide which shard the tuple belongs to.
+The hash function is `consistent`_
+so that changing the number of tuples will not affect results for many keys.
+The specific hash function that the shard package uses is
+guava.digest in the :codeitalic:`digest` package. |br|
+**Queue** ...
+A temporary list of recent update requests. Sometimes called "batching".
+Since updates to a sharded database can be slow, it may
+speed up throughput to send requests to a queue rather
+than wait for the update to finish on ever node.
+The shard package has functions for adding requests to the queue,
+which it will process without further intervention.
+Queuing is optional. |br|
+**Redundancy** ...
+The number of replicas in each shard. |br|
+**Replica** ...
+A complete copy of the data.
+The shard package handles both sharding and replication.
+One shard can contain one or more replicas.
+When a write occurs, the write is attempted on every replica in turn.
+The shard package does not use the built-in replication feature. |br|
+**Shard** ...
+A subset of the tuples in the database partitioned according to the
+value returned by the consistent hash function. Usually each shard
+is on a separate node, or a separate set of nodes (for example if
+redundancy = 3 then the shard will be on three nodes). |br|
+**Zone** ...
+A physical location where the nodes are closely connected, with
+the same security and backup and access points. The simplest example
+of a zone is a single computer with a single tarantool-server instance.
+A shard's replicas should be in different zones.
+The shard package is distributed separately from the main tarantool package.
+To acquire it, do a separate install. For example on Ubuntu say |br|
+sudo apt-get install tarantool-shard tarantool-pool |br|
+Or, download from github tarantool/shard
+and compile as described in the README. Then, before using the package, say
+shard = require('shard')
-.. _sharding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharding
-.. _On the shard section of github: https://github.com/tarantool/shard
+The most important function is |br|
+:samp:`shard.init ({shard-configuration})` |br|
+This must be called for every shard.
+The shard-configuration is a table with these fields: |br|
+* servers (a list of URIs of nodes and the zones the nodes are in) |br|
+* login (the user name which applies for accessing via the shard package) |br|
+* password (the password for the login) |br|
+* redundancy (a number, minimum 1) |br|
+* binary (a port number that this host is listening on, on the current host)
+(distinguishable from the 'listen' port specified by box.cfg) |br|
+Possible Errors: Redundancy should not be greater than the number of servers;
+the servers must be alive; two replicas of the same shard should not be in the same zone.
+ | EXAMPLE: shard.init syntax for one shard
+ | :codenormal:`-- The number of replicas per shard (redundancy) is 3.`
+ | :codenormal:`-- The number of servers is 3.`
+ | :codenormal:`-- The shard package will conclude that there is only one shard.`
+ | :codenormal:`cfg = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`servers = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33131', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33132', zone = '2' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33133', zone = '3' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`};`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`login = 'tester';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`password = 'pass';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`redundancy = 3;`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`binary = 33131;`
+ | :codenormal:`}`
+ | :codenormal:`server.init(cfg)`
+ |
+ | :codenormal:`EXAMPLE: shard.init syntax for three shards`
+ | :codenormal:`-- This describes three shards.`
+ | :codenormal:`-- Each shard has two replicas.`
+ | :codenormal:`-- Since the number of servers is 7, and the number`
+ | :codenormal:`-- of replicas per server is 2, and dividing 7 / 2`
+ | :codenormal:`-- leaves a remainder of 1, one of the servers will`
+ | :codenormal:`-- not be used. This is not necessarily an error,`
+ | :codenormal:`-- because perhaps one of the servers in the list is`
+ | :codenormal:`-- not alive.`
+ | :codenormal:`cfg = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`servers = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33131', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33132', zone = '2' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33133', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33134', zone = '2' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33135', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33136', zone = '2' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:33137', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`};`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`login = 'tester';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`password = 'pass';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`redundancy = 2;`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`binary = 33131;`
+ | :codenormal:`}`
+ | :codenormal:`server.init(cfg)`
+
+:samp:`shard.{space_name}.insert` :code:`{...}` etc. |br|
+Every data-access function in the box package
+has an analogue in the shard package, so (for
+example) to insert in table T in a sharded database one
+simply says "shard.T:insert{...}" instead of
+"box.T:insert{...}".
+A "shard.T:select{}" request without a primary key will search all shards.
+
+:samp:`q_shard.{space_name}.insert` {:code:`{...}` etc. |br|
+Every queued data-access function has an analogue in the shard package.
+The user must add an operation_id. The details of queued
+data-access functions, and of maintenance-related functions,
+are on `the shard section of github`_.
+
+ | :codenormal:`EXAMPLE -- Shard, Minimal Configuration`
+ | :codenormal:`-- There is only one`
+ | :codenormal:`-- shard, and that shard contains only one replica.`
+ | :codenormal:`-- So this isn't illustrating the features of either`
+ | :codenormal:`-- replication or sharding, it's only illustrating``
+ | :codenormal:`-- what the syntax is,`
+ | :codenormal:`-- and what the messages look like,`
+ | :codenormal:`-- that anyone could duplicate in a minute or two`
+ | :codenormal:`-- with the magic of cut-and-paste.`
+ | :codenormal:`mkdir ~/tarantool_sandbox_1`
+ | :codenormal:`cd ~/tarantool_sandbox_1`
+ | :codenormal:`rm -r *.snap`
+ | :codenormal:`rm -r *.xlog`
+ | :codenormal:`~/tarantool-master/src/tarantool`
+ | :codenormal:`box.cfg{listen = 3301}`
+ | :codenormal:`box.schema.create_space('tester')`
+ | :codenormal:`box.space.tester:create_index('primary', {})`
+ | :codenormal:`box.schema.user.passwd('admin', 'password')`
+ | :codenormal:`console = require('console')`
+ | :codenormal:`console.delimiter('!')`
+ | :codenormal:`cfg = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`servers = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:3301', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`};`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`login = 'admin';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`password = 'password';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`redundancy = 1;`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`binary = 3301;`
+ | :codenormal:`}!`
+ | :codenormal:`shard = require('shard')!`
+ | :codenormal:`shard.init(cfg)!`
+ | :codenormal:`-- Now put something in ...!`
+ | :codenormal:`shard.tester:insert{1,'Tuple #1'}!`
+
+If one cuts and pastes the above, then the result,
+showing only the requests and responses for shard.init
+and shard.tester, should look approximately like this:
+
+ | :codenormal:`tarantool>` :codebold:`shard.init(cfg)!`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> Sharding initialization started...`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> establishing connection to cluster servers...`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> - localhost:3301 - connecting...`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> - localhost:3301 - connected`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> connected to all servers`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> started`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> redundancy = 1`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> Zone len=1 THERE`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> Adding localhost:3301 to shard 1`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> Zone len=1 THERE`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> shards = 1`
+ | :codenormal:`2015-08-09 ... I> Done`
+ | :codenormal:`---`
+ | :codenormal:`- true`
+ | :codenormal:`...`
+ |
+ | :codenormal:`tarantool>` :codebold:`-- Now put something in ...!`
+ | :codenormal:`---`
+ | :codenormal:`...`
+ |
+ | :codenormal:`tarantool>` :codebold:`shard.tester:insert{1,'Tuple #1'}!`
+ | :codenormal:`---`
+ | :codenormal:`- - [1, 'Tuple #1']`
+ | :codenormal:`...`
+
+
+
+
+ |
+ |
+ | :codenormal:`EXAMPLE -- Shard, Scaling Out`
+ | :codenormal:`-- There are two shards, and each shard contains one replica.`
+ | :codenormal:`-- This requires two nodes. In real life the two nodes would`
+ | :codenormal:`-- be two computers, but for this illustration the requirement`
+ | :codenormal:`-- is merely: start two shells, which we'll call Terminal#1 and`
+ | :codenormal:`-- Terminal #2.`
+ |
+ | :codenormal:`-- On Terminal #1, say:`
+ | :codenormal:`mkdir ~/tarantool_sandbox_1`
+ | :codenormal:`cd ~/tarantool_sandbox_1`
+ | :codenormal:`rm -r *.snap`
+ | :codenormal:`rm -r *.xlog`
+ | :codenormal:`~/tarantool-master/src/tarantool`
+ | :codenormal:`box.cfg{listen = 3301}`
+ | :codenormal:`box.schema.create_space('tester')`
+ | :codenormal:`box.space.tester:create_index('primary', {})`
+ | :codenormal:`box.schema.user.passwd('admin', 'password')`
+ | :codenormal:`console = require('console')`
+ | :codenormal:`console.delimiter('!')`
+ | :codenormal:`cfg = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`servers = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:3301', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:3302', zone = '2' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`};`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`login = 'admin';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`password = 'password';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`redundancy = 1;`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`binary = 3301;`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`}!`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`shard = require('shard')!`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`shard.init(cfg)!`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`-- Now put something in ...!`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`shard.tester:insert{1,'Tuple #1'}!`
+ |
+ | -- On Terminal #2, say:
+ | :codenormal:`mkdir ~/tarantool_sandbox_2`
+ | :codenormal:`cd ~/tarantool_sandbox_2`
+ | :codenormal:`rm -r *.snap`
+ | :codenormal:`rm -r *.xlog`
+ | :codenormal:`~/tarantool-master/src/tarantool`
+ | :codenormal:`box.cfg{listen = 3302}`
+ | :codenormal:`box.schema.create_space('tester')`
+ | :codenormal:`box.space.tester:create_index('primary', {})`
+ | :codenormal:`box.schema.user.passwd('admin', 'password')`
+ | :codenormal:`console = require('console')`
+ | :codenormal:`console.delimiter('!')`
+ | :codenormal:`cfg = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`servers = {`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:3301', zone = '1' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`{ uri = 'localhost:3302', zone = '2' };`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`};`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`login = 'admin';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`password = 'password';`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`redundancy = 1;`
+ | |nbsp| |nbsp| :codenormal:`binary = 3302;`
+ | :codenormal:`}!`
+ | :codenormal:`shard = require('shard')!`
+ | :codenormal:`shard.init(cfg)!`
+ | :codenormal:`-- Now get something out ...!`
+ | :codenormal:`shard.tester:select{1}!`
+
+What will appear on Terminal #1 is: a loop of
+error messages saying "Connection refused" and
+"server check failure". This is normal. It will
+go on until Terminal #2 process starts.
+
+What will appear on Terminal #2, at the end,
+should look like this:
+
+| :codenormal:`tarantool>shard.tester:select{1}!`
+| :codenormal:`---`
+| :codenormal:`- - - [1, 'Tuple #1']`
+| :codenormal:`...`
+
+This shows that what was inserted by Terminal #1
+can be selected by Terminal #2, via the shard package.
+
+Details are on `the shard section of github`_.
+
+.. _consistent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consistent_hashing
+.. _the shard section of github: https://github.com/tarantool/shard