# Could not initialize the shard

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/could-not-initialize-the-shard/15918>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [February 20, 2014, 7:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/could-not-initialize-the-shard/15918 "2014-02-20T07:46:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![11142](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/e0b2c6/32.png) [@11142](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/11142)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 7:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/could-not-initialize-the-shard/15918/1 "2014-02-20T07:46:56Z")

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Hey!

I have a problem with one shard in my index:

"7" : [ {  
"state" : "INITIALIZING",  
"primary" : true,  
"node" : "cphuCdBbTPKfa1hlcCLGVg",  
"relocating\_node" : null,  
"shard" : 7,  
"index" : "vkontakte"  
}, {  
"state" : "UNASSIGNED",  
"primary" : false,  
"node" : null,  
"relocating\_node" : null,  
"shard" : 7,  
"index" : "vkontakte"  
} ],

It could not initialize and replica remains unassigned all the time. Thus i have red status of all the cluster.

Digging the logs i've found that it is the lock issue:

[2014-02-20 07:44:59,918][WARN][cluster.action.shard] [Big Man] [vkontakte][7] sending failed shard for [vkontakte][7], node[WMpyEC4iRGuSOsGjSlB-Yw], [P], s[INITIALIZING], indexUUID [SpXdJVZWTCqRJlKXMKFi-g], reason [Failed to start shard, message [IndexShardGatewayRecoveryException[[vkontakte][7] failed recovery]; nested: EngineCreationFailureException[[vkontakte][7] failed to create engine]; nested: LockReleaseFailedException[Cannot forcefully unlock a NativeFSLock which is held by another indexer component: /var/lib/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/nodes/0/indices/vkontakte/7/index/write.lock]; ]]

But if I stop the node and remove write.lock it become available until the indexing started.

Any suggestions how to fix this issue?

(ES version 0.90.10)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/could-not-initialize-the-shard/15918/2 "2017-07-06T01:48:53Z")

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