The cat allocation operation lists the allocation of disk space for indices and the number of shards on each node.
## Example
```json
GET _cat/allocation?v
```
To limit the information to a specific node, add the node name after your query:
```json
GET _cat/allocation/<node_name>
```
If you want to get information for more than one node, separate the node names with commas:
```json
GET _cat/aliases/node_name_1,node_name_2,node_name_3
```
## Path and HTTP methods
```
GET _cat/allocation?v
GET _cat/allocation/<node_name>
```
## URL parameters
All cat allocation URL parameters are optional.
In addition to the [common URL parameters]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/rest-api/cat/index#common-url-parameters), you can specify the following parameters:
Parameter | Type | Description
:--- | :--- | :---
bytes | Byte size | Specify the units for byte size. For example, `7kb` or `6gb`. For more information, see [Supported units]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/units/).
local | Boolean | Whether to return information from the local node only instead of from the master node. Default is false.
master_timeout | Time | The amount of time to wait for a connection to the master node. Default is 30 seconds.
## Response
The following response shows that 8 shards are allocated to each the two nodes available: