# ES has a lot of unassigned\_shards, failed to process cluster event, stuck in 503 error

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-has-a-lot-of-unassigned-shards-failed-to-process-cluster-event-stuck-in-503-error/27758>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 20, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-has-a-lot-of-unassigned-shards-failed-to-process-cluster-event-stuck-in-503-error/27758 "2015-08-20T12:05:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@brant](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brant)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-has-a-lot-of-unassigned-shards-failed-to-process-cluster-event-stuck-in-503-error/27758/1 "2015-08-20T12:05:05Z")

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curl -XGET '[http://127.0.0.1:9200/\_cluster/health?pretty=true](http://127.0.0.1:9200/_cluster/health?pretty=true)'  
{  
"cluster\_name" : "es",  
"status" : "red",  
"timed\_out" : false,  
"number\_of\_nodes" : 23,  
"number\_of\_data\_nodes" : 20,  
"active\_primary\_shards" : 3491,  
"active\_shards" : 5833,  
"relocating\_shards" : 0,  
"initializing\_shards" : 46,  
"unassigned\_shards" : 1345  
}  
ES has a lot of unassigned\_shards, failed to process cluster event, stuck in 503 error  
How to solve this? Thanks

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**Author:** ![widhalm\_t](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/widhalm_t/32/4290_2.png) [@widhalm\_t](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/widhalm_t)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-has-a-lot-of-unassigned-shards-failed-to-process-cluster-event-stuck-in-503-error/27758/2 "2015-08-20T13:34:07Z")

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First of all, we need some more information.

- What version of Elasticsearch are you running?
- Are you really sure, all nodes are running the same version?
- What Java version are you running?
- Are you really sure all nodes are running the same version?
- How many Nodes and Indices and Shards should be there? We only see how many are there now
- What do the logs of the nodes say? Of the connected ones and the possibly unconnected ones.
- How did this happen? Out of blue sky? During an upgrade? During a reboot?

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**Author:** ![brant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@brant](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brant)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-has-a-lot-of-unassigned-shards-failed-to-process-cluster-event-stuck-in-503-error/27758/3 "2015-08-20T14:02:09Z")

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--All ES "version" : {  
"number" : "1.3.5",  
"build\_hash" : "4a50e7df768fddd572f48830ae9c35e4ded86ac1",  
"build\_timestamp" : "2014-11-05T15:21:28Z",  
"build\_snapshot" : false,  
"lucene\_version" : "4.9"  
},  
--All java version "1.7.0\_72"  
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0\_72-b14)  
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.72-b04, mixed mode)  
--No upgrade or reboot or any other operation.

What could be the reason? Thanks!

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**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:** [August 21, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-has-a-lot-of-unassigned-shards-failed-to-process-cluster-event-stuck-in-503-error/27758/4 "2015-08-21T11:07:28Z")

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Answering the other questions will provide us context, simply posting what you have so far tells us nothing.

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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 5, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-has-a-lot-of-unassigned-shards-failed-to-process-cluster-event-stuck-in-503-error/27758/5 "2017-07-05T23:54:38Z")

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