# Shard distribution between nodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 29, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-distribution-between-nodes/9885 "2012-11-29T12:38:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roman\_Kournjaev](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/roman_kournjaev/32/2552_2.png) [@Roman\_Kournjaev](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Roman_Kournjaev)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-distribution-between-nodes/9885/1 "2012-11-29T12:38:27Z")
I have a question about sharding. I have a 4 node cluster ( 12 shards , 1 replica ) . I look at it in Head plugin and what is see is this unsyncronized picture of shards. Can someone explain me why do I see what i see here ? Why the shards are not equaly distributed between nodes ? [https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--YdPW7cUnGU/ULdW2EwYDRI/AAAAAAAALdI/CQEyENfIY6I/s1600/Capture.JPG](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--YdPW7cUnGU/ULdW2EwYDRI/AAAAAAAALdI/CQEyENfIY6I/s1600/Capture.JPG) -- ---
**Author:** ![radu\_gheorghe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/radu_gheorghe/32/556_2.png) [@radu\_gheorghe](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/radu_gheorghe)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-distribution-between-nodes/9885/2 "2012-11-29T15:06:49Z")
Hello Roman, Can you share the picture? Also, if you use multiple indices, ES by default just tries to balance the total number of shards. So you might get most shards of an index on one node, most shards of another index on another node and so on. You can make things even by using shard allocation settings: > **[Elastic — The Search AI Company](https://www.elastic.co)** > > Power insights and outcomes with The Elastic Search AI Platform. See into your data and find answers that matter with enterprise solutions designed to help you accelerate time to insight. Try Elastic ... especially index.routing.allocation.total\_shards\_per\_node. ## Best regards, Radu [http://sematext.com/](http://sematext.com/) -- Elasticsearch -- Solr -- Lucene On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 2:38 PM, Roman Kournjaev [kournjaev@gmail.com](mailto:kournjaev@gmail.com)wrote: > I have a question about sharding. > > I have a 4 node cluster ( 12 shards , 1 replica ) . > I look at it in Head plugin and what is see is this unsyncronized picture > of shards. Can someone explain me why do I see what i see here ? Why the > shards are not equaly distributed between nodes ? > > [https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--YdPW7cUnGU/ULdW2EwYDRI/AAAAAAAALdI/CQEyENfIY6I/s1600/Capture.JPG](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--YdPW7cUnGU/ULdW2EwYDRI/AAAAAAAALdI/CQEyENfIY6I/s1600/Capture.JPG) > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shard-distribution-between-nodes/9885/3 "2017-07-06T03:02:10Z")