Check cluster health $ curl elasticsearch:9200/_cluster/health?pretty List all index $ curl <elastic_host>/_cat/indices?v Identifying cluster problem $ curl <elastic_host>/_cluster/allocation/explain?pretty Fix cannot allocate because allocation is not permitted to any of the nodes issue $ curl -X PUT \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{ "index" : { "number_of_replicas": 0 } }' \ <elastic_host>/<index_name>/_settings Reroute failed shards The safer way $ curl -X POST '<elastic_host>/_cluster/reroute?retry_failed' Reroute specific index $ curl -X POST \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{ "commands" : [ { "allocate_stale_primary" : { "index" : "<index_name>", "shard" : 5, "node" : "0", "accept_data_loss" : true } } ] }' \ 'localhost:9200/_cluster/reroute?pretty'