# .kibana Index yellow (Shard is UNASSIGNED) - why isn't it recoverying
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 28, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361 "2016-11-28T14:36:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@guenther](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guenther)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/1 "2016-11-28T14:36:59Z")
Hi,
I use ES 5.0.0 with several indices including `.kibana`. Because this is the smallest one, I picked it for the demonstration here, but a lot of other indices are also yellow. They are not yellow from the beginning, but after a while in production some of them change.
I have three master nodes and two data nodes in my environment. The nodes are reachable and the cluster has no special settings. There are also plenty of system resources left (memory, disk, cpu). Sometimes, it happens that one node maybe is disconnected for a few seconds due to network issues.
Index-output
```auto
health status index uuid pri rep docs.count docs.deleted store.size pri.store.size
yellow open .kibana cZwgRQO9SJa10m0p6aGa8Q 1 1 205 4 406.4kb 406.4kb
```
and the shards
```auto
index shard prirep state docs store ip node
.kibana 0 p STARTED 205 406.4kb 138.201.138.161 ZPJ6URQ
.kibana 0 r UNASSIGNED
```
The settings for `.kibana` are
```auto
{
".kibana": {
"settings": {
"index": {
"creation_date": "1478249772863",
"number_of_shards": "1",
"number_of_replicas": "1",
"uuid": "cZwgRQO9SJa10m0p6aGa8Q",
"version": {
"created": "5000099"
},
"provided_name": ".kibana"
}
}
}
}
```
As far is I can tell, there should be one primary shard and one replication of it. Why isn't this working for this `.kibana` shard? How can I investigate why this is happening.
---
### Author:  [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/2 "2016-11-28T15:34:38Z")
Have you set `minimum_master_nodes` to 2 in order to avoid split brain scenarios? What does the output from the `_cat/nodes` API look like?
---
### Author:  [@guenther](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guenther)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/3 "2016-11-28T16:06:35Z")
Hi, yes. I have three master nodes and set the minimum to two.
I will add the output first thing in the morning.
---
### Author:  [@guenther](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guenther)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/4 "2016-11-29T06:48:51Z")
This is now awkward, but I restarted the ES-Cluster and the errors are gone (for now). They should happen again in a few days. Then I update this issue with the output of `_cat/nodes`
---
### Author:  [@Ravi\_Shanker\_Reddy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ravi_Shanker_Reddy)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 6:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/5 "2016-11-29T06:53:43Z")
As per split brain scenarios the node will not join the cluster upto restart and loose the data what ever in the restarted server. Please check once again for the spilt brain scenarios and for any loss of data in the cluster.
---
### Author:  [@guenther](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guenther)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 8:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/6 "2016-11-29T08:05:18Z")
How can this syndrome be checked?
---
### Author:  [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 8:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/7 "2016-11-29T08:08:26Z")
What does the output of`_cat/nodes` look like?
---
### Author:  [@guenther](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guenther)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 8:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/8 "2016-11-30T08:16:23Z")
```auto
138.201.138.161 9 99 4 0.22 0.17 0.24 m - yr41mRF
138.201.138.161 53 94 6 0.43 0.51 0.69 di - W4WL1Cd
138.201.138.161 23 94 4 0.34 0.41 0.60 m - NZu_qGq
138.201.138.161 52 94 2 0.34 0.41 0.60 di - ZPJ6URQ
138.201.138.161 11 94 5 0.43 0.51 0.69 m * BUvw64s
```
---
### Author:  [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 8:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/9 "2016-11-30T08:23:35Z")
Are all the nodes running on a single host? What is the specification of this host? What are the reasons for this setup?
Elasticsearch will avoid placing replicas on the same physical host as the primary, which could explain why your replica is not getting placed.
---
### Author:  [@guenther](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guenther)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 8:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/10 "2016-11-30T08:45:53Z")
Hm, no, acutally they all run on different hosts (at least the masters).
So there seems to be a problem in my setup.
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@guenther](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guenther)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/11 "2016-12-16T14:39:30Z")
Yap, this did the trick. Not it works.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-index-yellow-shard-is-unassigned-why-isnt-it-recoverying/67361/12 "2017-01-13T14:40:13Z")
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