ElasticSearch multiple path.data not storing in all directories

[hasan_sharekhan (hasaN khaN)]

I have 3 nodes of ElasticSearch v5.5 (node0, node1, node2)

I have set path.data to 5 different directories for each node on CentOS 7
i.e. /elk_data0, /elk_data1, /elk_data2, /elk_data3, /elk_data4

My problem is data is not getting stored on /elk_data0

The size of /elk_data0 is only 33MB and for other directories it is above 25GB

I found the below difference in /elk_data0 with others

/elk_data0/es_data/node0/nodes/0/indices/1F8ljDHPQcunjWjVfnACnw
In above directory /0/index/ is missing

/elk_data1/es_data/node0/nodes/0/indices/1F8ljDHPQcunjWjVfnACnw/0/index
All directories from 1 - 4 is like the above directory

[Christian_Dahlqvist]

Each shard is stored in a single path. Do you have enough shards to cover all paths?

[hasan_sharekhan (hasaN khaN)]

Thanks, I have currently 21 indices and 200 shards, but nothing is stored on /elk_data0/ as compared other directory size 33 MB vs 25GB

[Christian_Dahlqvist]

Did you start out with this disk configuration before adding data to the cluster or change after data was already indexed? Is this imbalance causing any performance problems?

[hasan_sharekhan (hasaN khaN)]

Thanks for your reply, now got it.

I started with 5 directories but for the first directory i had minor typing error in the path,

later i corrected it but till the time data was indexed, I believe sooner or later this directory with get data.

And I didn't faced any performance issue yet.

[Christian_Dahlqvist]

I don't believe Elasticsearch will move shards between paths once they are placed, so if the path was initially incorrect, it would expect the imbalance. I would expect this to even out as you add additional indices/shards.