diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java
index 8475272a5e2cd..bce6d02a8c7fc 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncAction.java
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ public final void executeNextPhase(SearchPhase currentPhase, SearchPhase nextPha
         } else {
             Boolean allowPartialResults = request.allowPartialSearchResults();
             assert allowPartialResults != null : "SearchRequest missing setting for allowPartialSearchResults";
-            if (allowPartialResults == false && shardFailures.get() != null) {
+            if (allowPartialResults == false && successfulOps.get() != getNumShards()) {
                 // check if there are actual failures in the atomic array since
                 // successful retries can reset the failures to null
                 ShardOperationFailedException[] shardSearchFailures = buildShardFailures();
@@ -154,6 +154,15 @@ public final void executeNextPhase(SearchPhase currentPhase, SearchPhase nextPha
                     }
                     onPhaseFailure(currentPhase, "Partial shards failure", null);
                     return;
+                } else {
+                    int discrepancy = getNumShards() - successfulOps.get();
+                    assert discrepancy > 0 : "discrepancy: " + discrepancy;
+                    if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
+                        logger.debug("Partial shards failure (unavailable: {}, successful: {}, skipped: {}, num-shards: {}, phase: {})",
+                            discrepancy, successfulOps.get(), skippedOps.get(), getNumShards(), currentPhase.getName());
+                    }
+                    onPhaseFailure(currentPhase, "Partial shards failure (" + discrepancy + " shards unavailable)", null);
+                    return;
                 }
             }
             if (logger.isTraceEnabled()) {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncActionTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncActionTests.java
index 16df17bef1ada..174b164aead26 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncActionTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/AbstractSearchAsyncActionTests.java
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ private AbstractSearchAsyncAction<SearchPhaseResult> createAction(SearchRequest
             return null;
         };
 
-        return new AbstractSearchAsyncAction<SearchPhaseResult>("test", null, null, nodeIdToConnection,
+        return new AbstractSearchAsyncAction<SearchPhaseResult>("test", logger, null, nodeIdToConnection,
                 Collections.singletonMap("foo", new AliasFilter(new MatchAllQueryBuilder())), Collections.singletonMap("foo", 2.0f),
                 Collections.singletonMap("name", Sets.newHashSet("bar", "baz")), null, request, listener,
                 new GroupShardsIterator<>(
@@ -239,6 +239,29 @@ public void run() {
         assertEquals(requestIds, releasedContexts);
     }
 
+    public void testShardNotAvailableWithDisallowPartialFailures() {
+        SearchRequest searchRequest = new SearchRequest().allowPartialSearchResults(false);
+        AtomicReference<Exception> exception = new AtomicReference<>();
+        ActionListener<SearchResponse> listener = ActionListener.wrap(response -> fail("onResponse should not be called"), exception::set);
+        int numShards = randomIntBetween(2, 10);
+        InitialSearchPhase.ArraySearchPhaseResults<SearchPhaseResult> phaseResults =
+            new InitialSearchPhase.ArraySearchPhaseResults<>(numShards);
+        AbstractSearchAsyncAction<SearchPhaseResult> action = createAction(searchRequest, phaseResults, listener, false, new AtomicLong());
+        // skip one to avoid the "all shards failed" failure.
+        SearchShardIterator skipIterator = new SearchShardIterator(null, null, Collections.emptyList(), null);
+        skipIterator.resetAndSkip();
+        action.skipShard(skipIterator);
+        // expect at least 2 shards, so onPhaseDone should report failure.
+        action.onPhaseDone();
+        assertThat(exception.get(), instanceOf(SearchPhaseExecutionException.class));
+        SearchPhaseExecutionException searchPhaseExecutionException = (SearchPhaseExecutionException)exception.get();
+        assertEquals("Partial shards failure (" + (numShards - 1) + " shards unavailable)",
+            searchPhaseExecutionException.getMessage());
+        assertEquals("test", searchPhaseExecutionException.getPhaseName());
+        assertEquals(0, searchPhaseExecutionException.shardFailures().length);
+        assertEquals(0, searchPhaseExecutionException.getSuppressed().length);
+    }
+
     private static InitialSearchPhase.ArraySearchPhaseResults<SearchPhaseResult> phaseResults(Set<Long> requestIds,
                                                                                               List<Tuple<String, String>> nodeLookups,
                                                                                               int numFailures) {