# Does a query have preference for other nodes shards?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-a-query-have-preference-for-other-nodes-shards/6805>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [February 25, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-a-query-have-preference-for-other-nodes-shards/6805 "2012-02-25T01:36:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Onilton\_Maciel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/onilton_maciel/32/2500_2.png) [@Onilton\_Maciel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Onilton_Maciel)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-a-query-have-preference-for-other-nodes-shards/6805/1 "2012-02-25T01:36:21Z")

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I have 4 nodes with 4 shards in each nodes.

node 1 - s1 s2 s3 s4  
node 2 - s1 s2 s3 s4  
node 3 - s1 s2 s3 s4  
node 4 - s1 s2 s3 s4

Does a query issued to node1 get forwarded to all shards in node 1 or just  
one shard of this node?

Can it be directed to more then one shard in node 1? Or to all of them?

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**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-a-query-have-preference-for-other-nodes-shards/6805/2 "2012-02-25T12:07:00Z")

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On Fri, 2012-02-24 at 21:36 -0400, Onilton Maciel wrote:

> I have 4 nodes with 4 shards in each nodes.
> 
> node 1 - s1 s2 s3 s4  
> node 2 - s1 s2 s3 s4  
> node 3 - s1 s2 s3 s4  
> node 4 - s1 s2 s3 s4
> 
> Does a query issued to node1 get forwarded to all shards in node 1 or  
> just one shard of this node?

Shards are round robin'ed (i think). Your query would be forwarded to  
s1,s2,s3,s4 but these shards may be on any of the nodes in your cluster.

> Can it be directed to more then one shard in node 1? Or to all of  
> them?

See search preference:

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>
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>

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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 6, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-a-query-have-preference-for-other-nodes-shards/6805/3 "2017-07-06T03:38:22Z")

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Closed on July 6, 2017, 3:38am UTC