[[discovery-troubleshooting]]
== Troubleshooting discovery

In most cases, the discovery and election process completes quickly, and the
master node remains elected for a long period of time.

If your cluster doesn't have a stable master, many of its features won't work
correctly and {es} will report errors to clients and in its logs. You must fix
the master node's instability before addressing these other issues. It will not
be possible to solve any other issues while there is no elected master node or
the elected master node is unstable.

If your cluster has a stable master but some nodes can't discover or join it,
these nodes will report errors to clients and in their logs. You must address
the obstacles preventing these nodes from joining the cluster before addressing
other issues. It will not be possible to solve any other issues reported by
these nodes while they are unable to join the cluster.

If the cluster has no elected master node for more than a few seconds, the
master is unstable, or some nodes are unable to discover or join a stable
master, then {es} will record information in its logs explaining why. If the
problems persist for more than a few minutes, {es} will record additional
information in its logs. To properly troubleshoot discovery and election
problems, collect and analyse logs covering at least five minutes from all
nodes.

The following sections describe some common discovery and election problems.

[discrete]
[[discovery-no-master]]
=== No master is elected

When a node wins the master election, it logs a message containing
`elected-as-master` and all nodes log a message containing
`master node changed` identifying the new elected master node.

If there is no elected master node and no node can win an election, all
nodes will repeatedly log messages about the problem using a logger called
`org.elasticsearch.cluster.coordination.ClusterFormationFailureHelper`. By
default, this happens every 10 seconds.

Master elections only involve master-eligible nodes, so focus on the logs from
master-eligible nodes in this situation. These nodes' logs will indicate the
requirements for a master election, such as the discovery of a certain set of
nodes.

If the logs indicate that {es} can't discover enough nodes to form a quorum,
you must address the reasons preventing {es} from discovering the missing
nodes. The missing nodes are needed to reconstruct the cluster metadata.
Without the cluster metadata, the data in your cluster is meaningless. The
cluster metadata is stored on a subset of the master-eligible nodes in the
cluster. If a quorum can't be discovered, the missing nodes were the ones
holding the cluster metadata.

Ensure there are enough nodes running to form a quorum and that every node can
communicate with every other node over the network. {es} will report additional
details about network connectivity if the election problems persist for more
than a few minutes. If you can't start enough nodes to form a quorum, start a
new cluster and restore data from a recent snapshot. Refer to
<<modules-discovery-quorums>> for more information.

If the logs indicate that {es} _has_ discovered a possible quorum of nodes, the
typical reason that the cluster can't elect a master is that one of the other
nodes can't discover a quorum. Inspect the logs on the other master-eligible
nodes and ensure that they have all discovered enough nodes to form a quorum.

[discrete]
[[discovery-master-unstable]]
=== Master is elected but unstable

When a node wins the master election, it logs a message containing
`elected-as-master`. If this happens repeatedly, the elected master node is
unstable. In this situation, focus on the logs from the master-eligible nodes
to understand why the election winner stops being the master and triggers
another election.

[discrete]
[[discovery-cannot-join-master]]
=== Node cannot discover or join stable master

If there is a stable elected master but a node can't discover or join its
cluster, it will repeatedly log messages about the problem using the
`ClusterFormationFailureHelper` logger. Other log messages on the affected node
and the elected master may provide additional information about the problem.

[discrete]
[[discovery-node-leaves]]
=== Node joins cluster and leaves again

If a node joins the cluster but {es} determines it to be faulty then it will be
removed from the cluster again. See <<cluster-fault-detection-troubleshooting>>
for more information.