# ElasticSearch return 4 primary shards instead of 3
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-return-4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19512
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 28, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-return-4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19512 "2014-08-28T16:02:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eddy\_Meds](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Eddy_Meds)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-return-4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19512/1 "2014-08-28T16:02:40Z")
Hello
I created an index with 3 primarys shards but ElasticSearch return and
indicate that there are 4 primary shards.
# Deleting the data in the cluster
DELETE /\_all
# Create an index with 3 primary shards with 1 replica each
PUT /blogs
{
"settings" : {
"number\_of\_shards" : 3,
"number\_of\_replicas" : 1
}
}
# Retrieve the cluster health
GET /\_cluster/health
And here is the response :
{
"cluster\_name": "clus",
"status": "yellow",
"timed\_out": false,
"number\_of\_nodes": 1,
"number\_of\_data\_nodes": 1,
"active\_primary\_shards": 4,
"active\_shards": 4,
"relocating\_shards": 0,
"initializing\_shards": 0,
"unassigned\_shards": 4
}
I thought that there was only the number of replica shards that could
change and that the number of primary shards wa
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---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-return-4-primary-shards-instead-of-3/19512/2 "2017-07-06T01:05:46Z")