# Dynamically adding a replica node doesn't do anything **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 24, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439 "2015-11-24T11:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/54ee81/32.png) [@Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Flavio_Pompermaier)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/1 "2015-11-24T11:16:04Z")
Hi to all, I was playing with ES in order to test dynamic scaling. I have a working cluster with some indices and I want to start replicating one of them. I tried to use curl -XPUT 'master-node:9200/my\_index/\_settings' -d '{ "index" : { "number\_of\_replicas" : 1}}' but the other node doesn't start syncing the data. I tried also with number\_of\_replicas = 2 but the replica node doesn't download anything but the \_state folder for each index. Am I doing something wrong or is it normal? I tried also to force the flush through my\_index/\_flush/synced but nothing happens.. ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/2 "2015-11-25T00:46:45Z")
There's no such thing as a replica node, ES balances the shards (primary or replica) across all nodes in the cluster. ---
**Author:** ![Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/54ee81/32.png) [@Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Flavio_Pompermaier)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 10:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/3 "2015-11-27T10:42:19Z")
So there's no way to force ES to start replicating an index in the cluster once I need it? ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 11:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/4 "2015-11-27T23:19:45Z")
Yes, you can add a replica to an index if it doesn't exist. ---
**Author:** ![Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/54ee81/32.png) [@Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Flavio_Pompermaier)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 11:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/5 "2015-11-30T11:30:52Z")
So why in my test cluster the added node didn't start synchronizing the data from the master? ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 12:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/6 "2015-11-30T12:04:13Z")
Did the node join the cluster? ---
**Author:** ![Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/54ee81/32.png) [@Flavio\_Pompermaier](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Flavio_Pompermaier)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 10:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/7 "2015-12-02T10:36:31Z")
Yes, it did. When the node join the cluster it creates all indexes folders in the data directory but they stay empty (except for the \_state directory). ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 10:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/8 "2015-12-02T10:59:11Z")
Did you change elasticsearch settings? May be your node is a `master` node only? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dynamically-adding-a-replica-node-doesnt-do-anything/35439/9 "2017-07-05T23:34:11Z")