# I have ES on a 5 Windows machines

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-have-es-on-a-5-windows-machines/385781>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 5, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-have-es-on-a-5-windows-machines/385781 "2026-04-05T21:09:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stanimir\_kirilov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/stanimir_kirilov/32/135002_2.png) [@stanimir\_kirilov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stanimir_kirilov)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-have-es-on-a-5-windows-machines/385781/1 "2026-04-05T21:09:32Z")

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Hello, I’m running Elasticsearch on five Windows virtual machines, and applying Windows updates to them is extremely time‑consuming.Each time I have to stop the shard allocation then proceed with the Windows updates, make sure the machine reboots properly and then allow the shard allocation. Have you found a way to automate this process? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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**Author:** ![mikewillis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mikewillis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mikewillis)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/i-have-es-on-a-5-windows-machines/385781/2 "2026-04-08T16:07:42Z")

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I have no experience of Elasticsearch on Windows, but I where I work we use Elasticsearch on Linux servers and those servers regularly install updates and reboot themselves automatically. (There’s some safety checks before a reboot such as, does the cluster contain the expected number of nodes, to avoid a non-Green cluster state being made worse.) We do not stop shard allocation before a server reboots. So reading your post I wonder, why do you have to stop the shard allocation?

Shard allocation can be stopped and starting using the Elasticsearch API [Cluster-level shard allocation and routing settings | Elasticsearch Reference](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/elasticsearch/configuration-reference/cluster-level-shard-allocation-routing-settings) so you could write a script which does whatever you need it to do including stopping and starting shard allocation.