# High number of shards despite configuration

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/high-number-of-shards-despite-configuration/53388>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 21, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/high-number-of-shards-despite-configuration/53388 "2016-06-21T02:03:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![digitalDNA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@digitalDNA](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/digitalDNA)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/high-number-of-shards-despite-configuration/53388/1 "2016-06-21T02:03:58Z")

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We are using ES 1.7.1 on one server, on another server, we have version 2.3.3 installed (latest up to date).

JVM version:: 1.8.0\_66 on Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS

For both servers, we have **index.number\_of\_shards set to 1** in /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml

On ES 1.7.1, GET \_/cat/allocation?v yields

shards disk.used disk.avail disk.total disk.percent host ip node  
**38** 24.4gb 91.3gb 115.7gb 21 elastic171 192.168.2.171 ns171  
**38** UNASSIGNED

As for ES 2.3.3, the same command yields

shards disk.indices disk.used disk.avail disk.total disk.percent host ip node  
**41** 13.9gb 21.9gb 93.8gb 115.7gb 18 192.168.2.104 192.168.2.104 ns0  
**41** UNASSIGNED

Why is it showing too many shards (38 and 41 above) ?

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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:** [July 5, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/high-number-of-shards-despite-configuration/53388/2 "2017-07-05T22:41:59Z")

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Closed on July 5, 2017, 10:41pm UTC