diff --git a/cmd/neofs-node/config/engine/config.go b/cmd/neofs-node/config/engine/config.go
index 77699f3a1..a5375efb0 100644
--- a/cmd/neofs-node/config/engine/config.go
+++ b/cmd/neofs-node/config/engine/config.go
@@ -15,36 +15,40 @@ const (
 	ShardPoolSizeDefault = 20
 )
 
-// IterateShards iterates over subsections ["0":"N") (N - "shard_num" value)
-// of "shard" subsection of "storage" section of c, wrap them into
-// shardconfig.Config and passes to f.
+// IterateShards iterates over subsections of "shard" subsection of "storage" section of c,
+// wrap them into shardconfig.Config and passes to f.
+//
+// Section names are expected to be consecutive integer numbers, starting from 0.
 //
 // Panics if N is not a positive number while shards are required.
 func IterateShards(c *config.Config, required bool, f func(*shardconfig.Config)) {
 	c = c.Sub(subsection)
 
-	num := config.Uint(c, "shard_num")
-	if num == 0 {
-		if required {
-			panic("no shard configured")
-		}
-
-		return
-	}
-
 	def := c.Sub("default")
 	c = c.Sub("shard")
 
-	for i := uint64(0); i < num; i++ {
+	i := uint64(0)
+	for ; ; i++ {
 		si := strconv.FormatUint(i, 10)
 
 		sc := shardconfig.From(
 			c.Sub(si),
 		)
+
+		// Path for the blobstor can't be present in the default section, because different shards
+		// must have different paths, so if it is missing, the shard is not here.
+		// At the same time checking for "blobstor" section doesn't work proper
+		// with configuration via the environment.
+		if (*config.Config)(sc).Value("blobstor.path") == nil {
+			break
+		}
 		(*config.Config)(sc).SetDefault(def)
 
 		f(sc)
 	}
+	if i == 0 && required {
+		panic("no shard configured")
+	}
 }
 
 // ShardPoolSize returns the value of "shard_pool_size" config parameter from "storage" section.
diff --git a/config/example/node.env b/config/example/node.env
index 70ba0d607..5ce451cb3 100644
--- a/config/example/node.env
+++ b/config/example/node.env
@@ -74,7 +74,6 @@ NEOFS_OBJECT_PUT_POOL_SIZE_REMOTE=100
 
 # Storage engine section
 NEOFS_STORAGE_SHARD_POOL_SIZE=15
-NEOFS_STORAGE_SHARD_NUM=2
 NEOFS_STORAGE_SHARD_RO_ERROR_THRESHOLD=100
 ## 0 shard
 ### Flag to refill Metabase from BlobStor
diff --git a/config/example/node.json b/config/example/node.json
index 6fee13f48..114fe8315 100644
--- a/config/example/node.json
+++ b/config/example/node.json
@@ -120,7 +120,6 @@
   },
   "storage": {
     "shard_pool_size": 15,
-    "shard_num": 2,
     "shard_ro_error_threshold": 100,
     "shard": {
       "0": {
diff --git a/config/example/node.yaml b/config/example/node.yaml
index 223290868..797d08553 100644
--- a/config/example/node.yaml
+++ b/config/example/node.yaml
@@ -103,7 +103,6 @@ object:
 storage:
   # note: shard configuration can be omitted for relay node (see `node.relay`)
   shard_pool_size: 15 # size of per-shard worker pools used for PUT operations
-  shard_num: 2  # total number of shards
   shard_ro_error_threshold: 100 # amount of errors to occur before shard is made read-only (default: 0, ignore errors)
   default: # section with the default shard parameters
     resync_metabase: true  # sync metabase with blobstor on start, expensive, leave false until complete understanding