A method of data replication in a clustered computing environment comprises receiving, at a selected indexer within a plurality of indexers in a cluster, data from a forwarder indexer, wherein the selected indexer is designated as a primary indexer for the data, wherein the primary indexer has primary responsibility for responding to search queries pertaining to the data, wherein the cluster comprises a plurality of sites. The method further comprises receiving, at the selected indexer, data replication instructions, wherein the data replication instructions comprise a number of other indexers in the cluster for storing a replicated copy of the data and further comprise a number of sites from the plurality of sites across which to store a replicated copy of the data determined in accordance with a site replication factor.