ElasticSearch ElasticSearch Cluster Management & Administration

Question 1

What is the default number of primary shards per index in Elasticsearch 7.x and later?

Accepted Answer

1

Answer

Elasticsearch 7.0 changed the default number of primary shards from 5 to 1 to reduce over-sharding in new deployments.

Question 2

Which API endpoint returns the overall health status (green, yellow, or red) of an Elasticsearch cluster?

Accepted Answer

GET /_cluster/health

Answer

GET /_cluster/health returns the cluster health status along with shard counts, active nodes, and other cluster-level details.

Question 3

What does a 'red' cluster health status indicate in Elasticsearch?

Accepted Answer

At least one primary shard is unassigned

Answer

A red status means at least one primary shard is not allocated, making some data potentially inaccessible.

Question 4

What is the minimum number of master-eligible nodes recommended to avoid a split-brain scenario in Elasticsearch?

Accepted Answer

3

Answer

Three master-eligible nodes with quorum-based voting (majority of 2) prevents split-brain where two network partitions each elect their own master.

Question 5

Which Elasticsearch cluster-level setting limits the total number of open shards allowed per data node?

Accepted Answer

cluster.max_shards_per_node

Answer

The cluster.max_shards_per_node setting caps the number of open shards on any single node to prevent resource exhaustion from over-sharding.

ElasticSearch Practice Test