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Search Shards API

The search shards api returns the indices and shards that a search request would be executed against. This can give useful feedback for working out issues or planning optimizations with routing and shard preferences. When filtered aliases are used, the filter is returned as part of the indices section [5.1.0] Added in 5.1.0.

The index may be a single value, or comma-separated.

Usage

Full example:

GET /twitter/_search_shards

This will yield the following result:

{
  "nodes": ...,
  "indices" : {
    "twitter": { }
  },
  "shards": [
    [
      {
        "index": "twitter",
        "node": "JklnKbD7Tyqi9TP3_Q_tBg",
        "primary": true,
        "shard": 0,
        "state": "STARTED",
        "allocation_id": {"id":"0TvkCyF7TAmM1wHP4a42-A"},
        "relocating_node": null
      }
    ],
    [
      {
        "index": "twitter",
        "node": "JklnKbD7Tyqi9TP3_Q_tBg",
        "primary": true,
        "shard": 1,
        "state": "STARTED",
        "allocation_id": {"id":"fMju3hd1QHWmWrIgFnI4Ww"},
        "relocating_node": null
      }
    ],
    [
      {
        "index": "twitter",
        "node": "JklnKbD7Tyqi9TP3_Q_tBg",
        "primary": true,
        "shard": 2,
        "state": "STARTED",
        "allocation_id": {"id":"Nwl0wbMBTHCWjEEbGYGapg"},
        "relocating_node": null
      }
    ],
    [
      {
        "index": "twitter",
        "node": "JklnKbD7Tyqi9TP3_Q_tBg",
        "primary": true,
        "shard": 3,
        "state": "STARTED",
        "allocation_id": {"id":"bU_KLGJISbW0RejwnwDPKw"},
        "relocating_node": null
      }
    ],
    [
      {
        "index": "twitter",
        "node": "JklnKbD7Tyqi9TP3_Q_tBg",
        "primary": true,
        "shard": 4,
        "state": "STARTED",
        "allocation_id": {"id":"DMs7_giNSwmdqVukF7UydA"},
        "relocating_node": null
      }
    ]
  ]
}

And specifying the same request, this time with a routing value:

GET /twitter/_search_shards?routing=foo,bar

This will yield the following result:

{
  "nodes": ...,
  "indices" : {
      "twitter": { }
  },
  "shards": [
    [
      {
        "index": "twitter",
        "node": "JklnKbD7Tyqi9TP3_Q_tBg",
        "primary": true,
        "shard": 2,
        "state": "STARTED",
        "allocation_id": {"id":"fMju3hd1QHWmWrIgFnI4Ww"},
        "relocating_node": null
      }
    ],
    [
      {
        "index": "twitter",
        "node": "JklnKbD7Tyqi9TP3_Q_tBg",
        "primary": true,
        "shard": 3,
        "state": "STARTED",
        "allocation_id": {"id":"0TvkCyF7TAmM1wHP4a42-A"},
        "relocating_node": null
      }
    ]
  ]
}

This time the search will only be executed against two of the shards, because routing values have been specified.

All parameters:

routing

A comma-separated list of routing values to take into account when determining which shards a request would be executed against.

preference

Controls a preference of which shard replicas to execute the search request on. By default, the operation is randomized between the shard replicas. See the preference documentation for a list of all acceptable values.

local

A boolean value whether to read the cluster state locally in order to determine where shards are allocated instead of using the Master node’s cluster state.