# Shards still started for closed indexes

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shards-still-started-for-closed-indexes/221930>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 3, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shards-still-started-for-closed-indexes/221930 "2020-03-03T17:37:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![16318a22907f3cbfa04b](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/16318a22907f3cbfa04b/32/36875_2.png) [@16318a22907f3cbfa04b](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/16318a22907f3cbfa04b)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shards-still-started-for-closed-indexes/221930/1 "2020-03-03T17:37:58Z")

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Elasticsearch 7.3.2 OSS.  
When I close some indexes (`POST pattern-*/_close`) shards still displayed as started in GET \_cat/shards.  
I made sure that the indexes are really closed (`GET _cat/indices/pattern-*?h=s,i`)  
I expected that the cat API should not show shards of closed indexes and should not take them into account when calculating the number of shards.  
What is wrong?

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**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 6:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shards-still-started-for-closed-indexes/221930/2 "2020-03-03T18:01:01Z")

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That sounds normal to me. The behaviour in this area changed in 7.2.0 since closed indices are now [properly replicated](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/33888). Although they're `STARTED` they still behave like normal closed indices, taking minimal resources and not supporting searches and so on.

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**Author:** ![16318a22907f3cbfa04b](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/16318a22907f3cbfa04b/32/36875_2.png) [@16318a22907f3cbfa04b](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/16318a22907f3cbfa04b)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shards-still-started-for-closed-indexes/221930/3 "2020-03-03T18:15:19Z")

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I saw that for closed indexes, the cat API returns the parameter `flush.total=null`. That's enough for me 🙂

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shards-still-started-for-closed-indexes/221930/4 "2020-03-31T18:15:24Z")

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