# 4 primary shards instead of 3
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19513
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 28, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19513 "2014-08-28T16:04:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eddy\_Meds](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Eddy_Meds)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19513/1 "2014-08-28T16:04:39Z")
Hello
I created an index with 3 primarys shards but ElasticSearch return and
indicate that there are 4 primary shards.
# Deleting the data in the cluster
DELETE /\_all
# Create an index with 3 primary shards with 1 replica each
PUT /blogs
{
"settings" : {
"number\_of\_shards" : 3,
"number\_of\_replicas" : 1
}
}
# Retrieve the cluster health
GET /\_cluster/health
And here is the response :
{
"cluster\_name": "clus",
"status": "yellow",
"timed\_out": false,
"number\_of\_nodes": 1,
"number\_of\_data\_nodes": 1,
"active\_primary\_shards": 4,
"active\_shards": 4,
"relocating\_shards": 0,
"initializing\_shards": 0,
"unassigned\_shards": 4
}
I thought that there was only the number of replica shards that could
change and that the number of primary shards was fixed at the time that the
index was created, where does come from the fourth primary shard ?
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### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19513/2 "2014-08-28T22:36:12Z")
Are you using marvel at all? It uses an index with a single shard by
default.
Regards,
Mark Walkom
Infrastructure Engineer
Campaign Monitor
email: [markw@campaignmonitor.com](mailto:markw@campaignmonitor.com)
web: [www.campaignmonitor.com](http://www.campaignmonitor.com)
On 29 August 2014 02:04, Eddy Meds [zqckfair@gmail.com](mailto:zqckfair@gmail.com) wrote:
> Hello
>
> I created an index with 3 primarys shards but Elasticsearch return and
> indicate that there are 4 primary shards.
>
> # Deleting the data in the cluster
>
> DELETE /\_all
>
> # Create an index with 3 primary shards with 1 replica each
>
> PUT /blogs
> {
> "settings" : {
> "number\_of\_shards" : 3,
> "number\_of\_replicas" : 1
> }
> }
>
> # Retrieve the cluster health
>
> GET /\_cluster/health
>
> And here is the response :
>
> {
> "cluster\_name": "clus",
> "status": "yellow",
> "timed\_out": false,
> "number\_of\_nodes": 1,
> "number\_of\_data\_nodes": 1,
> "active\_primary\_shards": 4,
> "active\_shards": 4,
> "relocating\_shards": 0,
> "initializing\_shards": 0,
> "unassigned\_shards": 4
> }
>
> I thought that there was only the number of replica shards that could
> change and that the number of primary shards was fixed at the time that the
> index was created, where does come from the fourth primary shard ?
>
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> [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf10106b-d5c5-472b-ab73-a6e747e44e43%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf10106b-d5c5-472b-ab73-a6e747e44e43%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)
> .
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### Author:  [@Eddy\_Meds](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Eddy_Meds)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19513/3 "2014-08-28T23:03:39Z")
Yes thanks, that was Marvel !
On Thursday, August 28, 2014 6:04:39 PM UTC+2, Eddy Meds wrote:
> Hello
>
> I created an index with 3 primarys shards but Elasticsearch return and
> indicate that there are 4 primary shards.
>
> # Deleting the data in the cluster
>
> DELETE /\_all
>
> # Create an index with 3 primary shards with 1 replica each
>
> PUT /blogs
> {
> "settings" : {
> "number\_of\_shards" : 3,
> "number\_of\_replicas" : 1
> }
> }
>
> # Retrieve the cluster health
>
> GET /\_cluster/health
>
> And here is the response :
>
> {
> "cluster\_name": "clus",
> "status": "yellow",
> "timed\_out": false,
> "number\_of\_nodes": 1,
> "number\_of\_data\_nodes": 1,
> "active\_primary\_shards": 4,
> "active\_shards": 4,
> "relocating\_shards": 0,
> "initializing\_shards": 0,
> "unassigned\_shards": 4
> }
>
> I thought that there was only the number of replica shards that could
> change and that the number of primary shards was fixed at the time that the
> index was created, where does come from the fourth primary shard ?
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---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19513/4 "2017-07-06T01:05:35Z")