# Should I have unassigned shards?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-i-have-unassigned-shards/90275>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 21, 2017, 11:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-i-have-unassigned-shards/90275 "2017-06-21T11:55:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![glifhits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dec6dc/32.png) [@glifhits](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/glifhits)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 11:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-i-have-unassigned-shards/90275/1 "2017-06-21T11:55:11Z")

</div>

Hi all,  
I am very new to elastic and am still learning.

I am currently using 1 server to host an instance of Elastic and Kibana and using the API to push data I need into elastic. So not a "typical" log file or anything.

My question is whenever I push one of these in its always unassigned so my unassigned\_shards number is always growing my understanding is that's not right. Can someone please explain how to fix this? or if I'm doing somthing wrong.

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-i-have-unassigned-shards/90275/2 "2017-06-21T12:45:16Z")

</div>

Start a new elasticsearch instance and replicas will be assigned. Or set the number of replica to 0

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![glifhits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dec6dc/32.png) [@glifhits](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/glifhits)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-i-have-unassigned-shards/90275/3 "2017-06-21T15:06:26Z")

</div>

Thanks I assigned them to 0. Does not having replicas make a difference if I only have 1 server?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-i-have-unassigned-shards/90275/4 "2017-06-21T16:01:47Z")

</div>

No. Does not hurt

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-i-have-unassigned-shards/90275/5 "2017-07-19T16:01:56Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.