# Data balancing problem

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-balancing-problem/9010>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 13, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-balancing-problem/9010 "2012-09-13T11:30:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![revdev\_2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/revdev_2/32/1852_2.png) [@revdev\_2](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/revdev_2)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-balancing-problem/9010/1 "2012-09-13T11:30:05Z")

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we have 8 nodes in an ES cluster and an index which we have set to 4 shards  
with 1 replica. i would've assumed that this would mean 4 roughly equal  
chunks on 4 nodes and replicas of those 4 chunks on the other 4 nodes but  
that doesn't seem to be the case. for example, one node is primary for one  
chunk and is a non-primary replica of two others and some nodes have no  
data at all. is the rebalancer disabled by default? how can i check the  
status? is there a way to manually redistribute the data?

thanks for any guidance!  
-r

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**Author:** ![olof](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/olof/32/2721_2.png) [@olof](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/olof)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-balancing-problem/9010/2 "2012-09-14T11:16:44Z")

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The balancing is not very intelligent, and it tends to mess up if a node  
leaves and enters the cluster.  
You can, however, control how many shards (primary & replicas) that you  
have on each node. I use this to ensure that each node has a primary shard  
and one replica.  
Take a look at

> **[Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale](https://www.elastic.co)**
>
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and index.routing.allocation.total\_shards\_per\_node.

Den torsdagen den 13:e september 2012 kl. 13:30:05 UTC+2 skrev revdev:

> we have 8 nodes in an ES cluster and an index which we have set to 4  
> shards with 1 replica. i would've assumed that this would mean 4 roughly  
> equal chunks on 4 nodes and replicas of those 4 chunks on the other 4 nodes  
> but that doesn't seem to be the case. for example, one node is primary for  
> one chunk and is a non-primary replica of two others and some nodes have no  
> data at all. is the rebalancer disabled by default? how can i check the  
> status? is there a way to manually redistribute the data?
> 
> thanks for any guidance!  
> -r

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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, 3:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-balancing-problem/9010/3 "2017-07-06T03:12:46Z")

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