# \[cluster\_block\_exception\] - Disk allocation and usage help!

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cluster-block-exception-disk-allocation-and-usage-help/186654>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 20, 2019, 10:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cluster-block-exception-disk-allocation-and-usage-help/186654 "2019-06-20T10:24:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rickwest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@rickwest](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rickwest)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 10:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cluster-block-exception-disk-allocation-and-usage-help/186654/1 "2019-06-20T10:24:53Z")

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Morning all,

New Elasticsearch user here and trying to integrate it into a project that I'm working on. Currently just working locally with Elasticsearch using Ubuntu 18.04.

I have been working for the past week or so, creating indexes, indexing documents, searching and just generally getting familiar with things.

However, I have now hit a problem:

`[cluster_block_exception] blocked by: [FORBIDDEN/12/index read-only / allow delete (api)];`

it appears that my index is being forced into read-only mode due to 95% of disk space being used.

 ![kibana](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/8/9/89f0a9a068a31df25035958b1545e9f0612b6a62.png)

However, I don't understand this or know how to rectify it, I have deleted all my indexes bar the 4kb .kibana index so I don't understand the used disk space?

Would really love it if anyone can shed some light on this, i'm stuck, and please forgive my ignorance!

Much appreciated,

Rick

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**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cluster-block-exception-disk-allocation-and-usage-help/186654/2 "2019-06-20T10:54:25Z")

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Hi @rickwest and welcome!

Here's a link to the [docs on disk-based shard allocation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.1/disk-allocator.html), which tells you how to remove the read-only block once you've freed up the space:

> An example of resetting the read-only index block on the `twitter` index:
> 
> ```plaintext
> PUT /twitter/_settings
> { "index.blocks.read_only_allow_delete": null }
> 
> ```

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cluster-block-exception-disk-allocation-and-usage-help/186654/3 "2019-07-18T10:54:30Z")

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