# Shard Awareness and Allocation **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 14, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-awareness-and-allocation/55534 "2016-07-14T14:46:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tgdesrochers](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/tgdesrochers/32/51322_2.png) [@tgdesrochers](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tgdesrochers)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-awareness-and-allocation/55534/1 "2016-07-14T14:46:00Z")
I have upgraded the RAM on my data nodes to 64GB and before restarting I decided to start using shard awareness. I added the following to my elasticsearch.yml: node.master: false node.data: true node.box\_type: hot node.zone: hot\_zone node.rack\_id: OP-01-PM-3819 The thought here is because I have my ES nodes visualized on physical servers I wanted to make sure that no shards were on the same physical host. I have 12 nodes on SSD's with 64 GB ram and 6TB HDDs with node.zone: hot box\_type: hot and 3 nodes on spinning disk with 32 GB RAM and 64TB HDDs with node.zone: cold box\_type: hot The idea is that all new indexes are written to hot nodes and before aging out old indices I move them to cold nodes and close them. When I restarted the cluster all shards have not reallocated themselves and my cluster is VERY unbalanced. my cluster settings: ``` { "persistent": { "cluster": { "routing": { "rebalance": { "enable": "all" }, "allocation": { "disable_allocation": "false", "allow_rebalance": "indices_primaries_active", "awareness": { "attributes": "rack_id,zone" }, "enable": "all" } } }, "threadpool": { "bulk": { "queue_size": "10000" } } }, "transient": { "cluster": { "routing": { "rebalance": { "enable": "all" }, "allocation": { "awareness": { "attributes": "rack_id,zone" }, "allow_rebalance": "indices_primaries_active", "enable": "all" } } } } } ``` What should I have set for the shards to reallocate appropriately. ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-awareness-and-allocation/55534/2 "2016-07-15T04:09:19Z")
How unevenly? What does `_cat/allocation` look like? ---
**Author:** ![tgdesrochers](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/tgdesrochers/32/51322_2.png) [@tgdesrochers](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tgdesrochers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-awareness-and-allocation/55534/3 "2016-07-15T11:39:59Z")
after a night of sitting and splitting my 12 hot nodes into 4 zones "node.zone hot\_zone1" "node.zone: hot\_zone2" etc. I get the following: ``` 269 1.6tb 1.7tb 4.2tb 5.9tb 29 10.1.55.16 10.1.55.16 WORKER_NODE_9 197 1.7tb 2.1tb 3.7tb 5.9tb 36 10.1.55.18 10.1.55.18 WORKER_NODE_11 0 0b 25.5tb 43.9tb 69.4tb 36 10.1.55.32 10.1.55.32 STORAGE_NODE_2 187 1tb 1.1tb 4.7tb 5.9tb 19 10.1.55.15 10.1.55.15 WORKER_NODE_8 126 1.1tb 25.5tb 43.9tb 69.4tb 36 10.1.55.33 10.1.55.33 STORAGE_NODE_3 222 1.1tb 1.7tb 4.1tb 5.9tb 29 10.1.55.13 10.1.55.13 WORKER_NODE_6 268 1.7tb 2.6tb 3.3tb 5.9tb 44 10.1.55.11 10.1.55.11 WORKER_NODE_4 188 1.6tb 1.6tb 4.3tb 5.9tb 27 10.1.55.12 10.1.55.12 WORKER_NODE_5 188 1.2tb 1.7tb 4.2tb 5.9tb 28 10.1.55.19 10.1.55.19 WORKER_NODE_12 258 2tb 2.9tb 4tb 6.9tb 42 10.1.55.8 10.1.55.8 WORKER_NODE_1 72 579.4gb 25.5tb 43.9tb 69.4tb 36 10.1.55.31 10.1.55.31 STORAGE_NODE_1 185 1.4tb 2.5tb 3.4tb 5.9tb 42 10.1.55.10 10.1.55.10 WORKER_NODE_3 185 1.4tb 2.7tb 4.1tb 6.9tb 40 10.1.55.9 10.1.55.9 WORKER_NODE_2 235 1.9tb 2.4tb 3.4tb 5.9tb 41 10.1.55.17 10.1.55.17 WORKER_NODE_10 186 1.2tb 2.1tb 3.8tb 5.9tb 35 10.1.55.14 10.1.55.14 WORKER_NODE_7 70 UNASSIGNED ``` ---
**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, 10:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-awareness-and-allocation/55534/4 "2017-07-05T22:35:17Z")