# Force merge issue? through kibana

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/force-merge-issue-through-kibana/157727>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [November 21, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/force-merge-issue-through-kibana/157727 "2018-11-21T14:35:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![raulk89](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raulk89](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raulk89)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/force-merge-issue-through-kibana/157727/1 "2018-11-21T14:35:38Z")

</div>

Hi

elastic, kibana 6.5.0

I have done some testing, in dev environment, and I have noticed something.  
In kibana: management -\> index management --\> force merge.

It says, that default value is 1, but if I run this, then it actually does nothing, and number of segments per shard is still 9 (as it was before).

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/d/2/d20b22a328a60ea9ca6731ae71dddb7cfb8a5eb6.png)

It seems to me that actually default value is:

> max\_num\_segments  
> Defaults to simply checking if a merge needs to execute, and if so, executes it.  
> [Force merge API | Elasticsearch Guide [8.11] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-forcemerge.html)

So it will just check, if it needs to to something.

And for example, if I insert value **lower than current\_segment\_per\_shard and higher than 1** , then it will actually still use 1, so for example:

> current\_segment\_per\_shard = 9  
> I do force merge through kibana on an specific index, and insert value 7  
> then after the force merge action, I have 1 segment per shard.
> 
> So the setting that I inserted, 7, does not make no difference.

Regards  
Raul

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Marius\_Dragomir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/marius_dragomir/32/42087_2.png) [@Marius\_Dragomir](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Marius_Dragomir)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 12:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/force-merge-issue-through-kibana/157727/2 "2018-11-22T12:00:10Z")

</div>

The whole thing this does is use the forcemerge API and sends the value that you add in the input as max\_num\_segments. For more information on how this works in the backend, you should ask the Elasticsearch team in their forum.

---

<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:** [December 20, 2018, 12:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/force-merge-issue-through-kibana/157727/3 "2018-12-20T12:00:10Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.