Long running shard task
Elastic Cloud Hosted lets you manage and configure one or more deployments of the versioned Elastic Stack, hosted on Elastic Cloud. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes extends Kubernetes orchestration capabilities to allow you to deploy and manage components of the Elastic Stack. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes. Elastic Cloud Enterprise is a self-managed orchestration platform for deploying and managing the Elastic Stack at scale. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes. Self-managed deployments are Elastic Stack deployments managed without the assistance of an orchestrator. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.
ECH
Generally available
ECK
Generally available
ECE
Generally available
Self-managed
Generally available
A shard-level task such as recovery, relocation, or initialization has run longer than your configured threshold. Shard work is normal after topology changes, snapshot restores, or replica adjustments, but very large shards or many concurrent movements prolong it.
For a complete list of insights, refer to AutoOps insights.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Component | Elasticsearch |
| Severity | Medium |
| Scope | Node |
| Domains | performance, shard-allocation, stability, tasks |
You can customize these settings to adjust when AutoOps detects this event and presents the insight. Refer to AutoOps event settings for details.
The default customization settings are:
| Setting | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Long running shard task threshold in minutes | Integer | 60 |
The following is an example of what you might see when this insight is triggered. Real insights use live data and links from your deployment or cluster.
There are 3 tasks that ran more than the 12 minutes threshold.
The longest task running start time was 2026-03-15T14:22:00 UTC time.
The longest task running time is 48 minutes.
AutoOps shows different recommendations depending on how their conditions match your deployment or cluster.
Cancel long-running tasks
Condition: Shown when cancellable.
Cancel long-running tasks (es-data-01:4521, es-data-02:7788) that are affecting cluster stability. Use the action below.
POST _tasks/es-data-01:4521, es-data-02:7788/_cancelRequires the manage cluster privilege. Requires Elasticsearch 8.0.0 or later. This action changes cluster or index configuration.
Fix non-cancellable shard tasks
Condition: Shown when not cancellable.
Balance or reroute shards during off-peak hours, or reduce cluster load so long-running shard recovery and relocation can finish.
Fix non-cancellable shard tasks
Condition: Shown when shard task is not cancellable.
Balance or reroute shards during off-peak hours, or add or remove nodes so long-running shard tasks can finish.
Shard allocation and relocation keep data balanced across nodes. Recovery, relocation, and initialization tasks copy shard data over the network and disk when cluster topology or shard placement changes.
Large shards, many concurrent movements, or cluster resource pressure extend these tasks. When shard work runs long, disk and network utilization rise and cluster balance can stall until the tasks finish.