diff --git a/rest-api-spec/api/cluster.state.json b/rest-api-spec/api/cluster.state.json
index 9eb2a1f62b8..0f4bf6f21ad 100644
--- a/rest-api-spec/api/cluster.state.json
+++ b/rest-api-spec/api/cluster.state.json
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
         },
         "metric" : {
           "type" : "list",
-          "options" : ["_all", "blocks", "metadata", "nodes", "routing_table", "master_node", "version"],
+          "options" : ["_all", "blocks", "metadata", "nodes", "routing_table", "routing_nodes", "master_node", "version"],
           "description" : "Limit the information returned to the specified metrics"
         }
       },
diff --git a/rest-api-spec/test/cluster.state/20_filtering.yaml b/rest-api-spec/test/cluster.state/20_filtering.yaml
index ee8df1a5331..fa8523a7bb1 100644
--- a/rest-api-spec/test/cluster.state/20_filtering.yaml
+++ b/rest-api-spec/test/cluster.state/20_filtering.yaml
@@ -83,6 +83,18 @@ setup:
   - is_true: routing_table
   - is_true: routing_nodes
 
+---
+"Filtering the cluster state by routing nodes only should work":
+  - do:
+      cluster.state:
+        metric: [ routing_nodes ]
+
+  - is_false: blocks
+  - is_false: nodes
+  - is_false: metadata
+  - is_false: routing_table
+  - is_true: routing_nodes
+
 ---
 "Filtering the cluster state by indices should work in routing table and metadata":
   - do:
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterState.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterState.java
index c7c3b3da3c3..5452b36142b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterState.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterState.java
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ import com.carrotsearch.hppc.cursors.ObjectCursor;
 import com.carrotsearch.hppc.cursors.ObjectObjectCursor;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSet;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchIllegalArgumentException;
-import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.block.ClusterBlock;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.block.ClusterBlocks;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetaData;
@@ -33,7 +32,6 @@ import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.MetaData;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNodes;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.*;
-
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.allocation.RoutingAllocation;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
@@ -261,6 +259,7 @@ public class ClusterState implements ToXContent {
         NODES("nodes"),
         METADATA("metadata"),
         ROUTING_TABLE("routing_table"),
+        ROUTING_NODES("routing_nodes"),
         CUSTOMS("customs");
 
         private static Map<String, Metric> valueToEnum;
@@ -465,7 +464,8 @@ public class ClusterState implements ToXContent {
         }
 
         // routing nodes
-        if (metrics.contains(Metric.ROUTING_TABLE)) {
+        // gets printed out even if only routing_table was requested for bw comp reasons
+        if (metrics.contains(Metric.ROUTING_TABLE) || metrics.contains(Metric.ROUTING_NODES)) {
             builder.startObject("routing_nodes");
             builder.startArray("unassigned");
             for (ShardRouting shardRouting : readOnlyRoutingNodes().unassigned()) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/cluster/state/RestClusterStateAction.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/cluster/state/RestClusterStateAction.java
index 4826bb9cff0..bac21dd13e4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/cluster/state/RestClusterStateAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/cluster/state/RestClusterStateAction.java
@@ -72,7 +72,8 @@ public class RestClusterStateAction extends BaseRestHandler {
             EnumSet<ClusterState.Metric> metrics = ClusterState.Metric.parseString(request.param("metric"), true);
             // do not ask for what we do not need.
             clusterStateRequest.nodes(metrics.contains(ClusterState.Metric.NODES) || metrics.contains(ClusterState.Metric.MASTER_NODE));
-            clusterStateRequest.routingTable(metrics.contains(ClusterState.Metric.ROUTING_TABLE));
+            //there is no distinction in Java api between routing_table and routing_nodes, it's the same info set over the wire, one single flag to ask for it
+            clusterStateRequest.routingTable(metrics.contains(ClusterState.Metric.ROUTING_TABLE) || metrics.contains(ClusterState.Metric.ROUTING_NODES));
             clusterStateRequest.metaData(metrics.contains(ClusterState.Metric.METADATA));
             clusterStateRequest.blocks(metrics.contains(ClusterState.Metric.BLOCKS));
         }