# ES unable to allocate Primary and corresponding Secondary shards after node re-joins cluster

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-unable-to-allocate-primary-and-corresponding-secondary-shards-after-node-re-joins-cluster/146913>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 31, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-unable-to-allocate-primary-and-corresponding-secondary-shards-after-node-re-joins-cluster/146913 "2018-08-31T20:07:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![UDixit](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/udixit/32/53219_2.png) [@UDixit](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/UDixit)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-unable-to-allocate-primary-and-corresponding-secondary-shards-after-node-re-joins-cluster/146913/1 "2018-08-31T20:07:09Z")

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Following was the sequence of Events:

1. node cluster(node= N-1) ( node itself was master)5 indexes : 12 shard each (total 60 shards)
2. Scale up the cluster and add 2 replicas(N-2 and N-3)Replicas have initialized but the #ActiveShards is till 60(why not 180?)
3. Master node(N-1) leaves the cluster (reason: shut\_down)ActiveShards is till 60, cluster is green
4. New master(N-3) is elected and cluster is still green
5. The original node(N-1) rejoins the cluster(after ~50 mins) and accepts the new master(N-3).
6. Soon after, cluster turns red and multiple primary and their secondary shards get unassigned.

I have the following questions:

```auto
1. When the 2 nodes(N-2 and N-3) joined the cluster(see step 2 above), cluster was green
but the number of ActiveShards was still 60(why not 180?)

2. Why did cluster turn red soon after the node(N-1) rejoined the cluster?

3. Node restart did not help or trigger re-allocation.

4. Cluster reroute not do anything. Why?

```

I could see the node (N-1) had the shards available on its disk, but ES was not recognizing these as valid shards.

Eventually, I had to set the **'index.recovery.initial\_shards' to 1.** Soon after all shards reassigned themselves. How and Why?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-unable-to-allocate-primary-and-corresponding-secondary-shards-after-node-re-joins-cluster/146913/2 "2018-09-28T20:07:17Z")

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