# Question regarding Shard Distribution while adding a replica to cluster
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-shard-distribution-while-adding-a-replica-to-cluster/18725
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 17, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-shard-distribution-while-adding-a-replica-to-cluster/18725 "2014-07-17T20:47:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rahul\_Sharma](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rahul_Sharma)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-shard-distribution-while-adding-a-replica-to-cluster/18725/1 "2014-07-17T20:47:17Z")
Hi,
My ES Version -- 0.90.2
1. I used to have a 3 node ES cluster where I had 5 shard indices. I used
to have around 1000 shards (all primary as it was running with 0 replica).
2. Then I change the replica to 1 and add 3 additional nodes hoping the
shards will get evenly balanced with a replica.
However what I found is that all new indices are getting created with
replica (So in total 10 shards per index) but the old indices stayed as is.
They did not get replicated.
So my new nodes are fairly empty whereas the old nodes shards are growing
as new indices are getting created.
_How can I re-balance the cluster so that I my shards are evenly balanced
and the old indices also gets replicated?_
Now I am facing another problem, while I index new data the cluster
suddenly drops few shards to unassigned and goes to Red, however it pick up
and reassigns on its own. But this keeps happening pretty often. Not sure
what could be the cause. Would appreciate your guidence here.
Thanks
Rahul
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-shard-distribution-while-adding-a-replica-to-cluster/18725/2 "2017-07-06T01:15:06Z")