elasticsearch/docs/reference/modules/discovery/zen.asciidoc

[[modules-discovery-zen]]
=== Zen Discovery

Zen discovery is the built-in, default, discovery module for Elasticsearch.  It
provides unicast and file-based discovery, and can be extended to support cloud
environments and other forms of discovery via plugins.

Zen discovery is integrated with other modules, for example, all communication
between nodes is done using the <<modules-transport,transport>> module.

It is separated into several sub modules, which are explained below:

[float]
[[ping]]
==== Ping

This is the process where a node uses the discovery mechanisms to find other
nodes.

[float]
[[discovery-seed-nodes]]
==== Seed nodes

Zen discovery uses a list of _seed_ nodes in order to start off the discovery
process. At startup, or when electing a new master, Elasticsearch tries to
connect to each seed node in its list, and holds a gossip-like conversation with
them to find other nodes and to build a complete picture of the cluster. By
default there are two methods for configuring the list of seed nodes: _unicast_
and _file-based_.  It is recommended that the list of seed nodes comprises the
list of master-eligible nodes in the cluster.

[float]
[[unicast]]
===== Unicast

Unicast discovery configures a static list of hosts for use as seed nodes.
These hosts can be specified as hostnames or IP addresses; hosts specified as
hostnames are resolved to IP addresses during each round of pinging. Note that
if you are in an environment where DNS resolutions vary with time, you might
need to adjust your <<networkaddress-cache-ttl,JVM security settings>>.

The list of hosts is set using the `discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts` static
setting.  This is either an array of hosts or a comma-delimited string. Each
value should be in the form of `host:port` or `host` (where `port` defaults to
the setting `transport.profiles.default.port` falling back to
`transport.port` if not set). Note that IPv6 hosts must be bracketed. The
default for this setting is `127.0.0.1, [::1]`

Additionally, the `discovery.zen.ping.unicast.resolve_timeout` configures the
amount of time to wait for DNS lookups on each round of pinging. This is
specified as a <<time-units, time unit>> and defaults to 5s.

Unicast discovery uses the <<modules-transport,transport>> module to perform the
discovery.

[float]
[[file-based-hosts-provider]]
===== File-based

In addition to hosts provided by the static `discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts`
setting, it is possible to provide a list of hosts via an external file.
Elasticsearch reloads this file when it changes, so that the list of seed nodes
can change dynamically without needing to restart each node. For example, this
gives a convenient mechanism for an Elasticsearch instance that is run in a
Docker container to be dynamically supplied with a list of IP addresses to
connect to for Zen discovery when those IP addresses may not be known at node
startup.

To enable file-based discovery, configure the `file` hosts provider as follows:

[source,txt]
----------------------------------------------------------------
discovery.zen.hosts_provider: file
----------------------------------------------------------------

Then create a file at `$ES_PATH_CONF/unicast_hosts.txt` in the format described
below. Any time a change is made to the `unicast_hosts.txt` file the new
changes will be picked up by Elasticsearch and the new hosts list will be used.

Note that the file-based discovery plugin augments the unicast hosts list in
`elasticsearch.yml`: if there are valid unicast host entries in
`discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts` then they will be used in addition to those
supplied in `unicast_hosts.txt`.

The `discovery.zen.ping.unicast.resolve_timeout` setting also applies to DNS
lookups for nodes specified by address via file-based discovery. This is
specified as a <<time-units, time unit>> and defaults to 5s.

The format of the file is to specify one node entry per line.  Each node entry
consists of the host (host name or IP address) and an optional transport port
number.  If the port number is specified, is must come immediately after the
host (on the same line) separated by a `:`.  If the port number is not
specified, a default value of 9300 is used.

For example, this is an example of `unicast_hosts.txt` for a cluster with four
nodes that participate in unicast discovery, some of which are not running on
the default port:

[source,txt]
----------------------------------------------------------------
10.10.10.5
10.10.10.6:9305
10.10.10.5:10005
# an IPv6 address
[2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]:9301
----------------------------------------------------------------

Host names are allowed instead of IP addresses (similar to
`discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts`), and IPv6 addresses must be specified in
brackets with the port coming after the brackets.

It is also possible to add comments to this file. All comments must appear on
their lines starting with `#` (i.e. comments cannot start in the middle of a
line).

[float]
[[master-election]]
==== Master Election

As part of the ping process a master of the cluster is either elected or joined
to. This is done automatically. The `discovery.zen.ping_timeout` (which defaults
to `3s`) determines how long the node will wait before deciding on starting an
election or joining an existing cluster.  Three pings will be sent over this
timeout interval. In case where no decision can be reached after the timeout,
the pinging process restarts.  In slow or congested networks, three seconds
might not be enough for a node to become aware of the other nodes in its
environment before making an election decision.  Increasing the timeout should
be done with care in that case, as it will slow down the election process.  Once
a node decides to join an existing formed cluster, it will send a join request
to the master (`discovery.zen.join_timeout`) with a timeout defaulting at 20
times the ping timeout.

When the master node stops or has encountered a problem, the cluster nodes start
pinging again and will elect a new master. This pinging round also serves as a
protection against (partial) network failures where a node may unjustly think
that the master has failed. In this case the node will simply hear from other
nodes about the currently active master.

If `discovery.zen.master_election.ignore_non_master_pings` is `true`, pings from
nodes that are not master eligible (nodes where `node.master` is `false`) are
ignored during master election; the default value is `false`.

Nodes can be excluded from becoming a master by setting `node.master` to
`false`.

The `discovery.zen.minimum_master_nodes` sets the minimum number of master
eligible nodes that need to join a newly elected master in order for an election
to complete and for the elected node to accept its mastership. The same setting
controls the minimum number of active master eligible nodes that should be a
part of any active cluster. If this requirement is not met the active master
node will step down and a new master election will begin.

This setting must be set to a <<minimum_master_nodes,quorum>> of your master
eligible nodes. It is recommended to avoid having only two master eligible
nodes, since a quorum of two is two. Therefore, a loss of either master eligible
node will result in an inoperable cluster.

[float]
[[fault-detection]]
==== Fault Detection

There are two fault detection processes running. The first is by the master, to
ping all the other nodes in the cluster and verify that they are alive. And on
the other end, each node pings to master to verify if its still alive or an
election process needs to be initiated.

The following settings control the fault detection process using the
`discovery.zen.fd` prefix:

[cols="<,<",options="header",]
|=======================================================================
|Setting |Description
|`ping_interval` |How often a node gets pinged. Defaults to `1s`.

|`ping_timeout` |How long to wait for a ping response, defaults to
`30s`.

|`ping_retries` |How many ping failures / timeouts cause a node to be
considered failed. Defaults to `3`.
|=======================================================================

[float]
==== Cluster state updates

The master node is the only node in a cluster that can make changes to the
cluster state. The master node processes one cluster state update at a time,
applies the required changes and publishes the updated cluster state to all the
other nodes in the cluster. Each node receives the publish message, acknowledges
it, but does *not* yet apply it. If the master does not receive acknowledgement
from at least `discovery.zen.minimum_master_nodes` nodes within a certain time
(controlled by the `discovery.zen.commit_timeout` setting and defaults to 30
seconds) the cluster state change is rejected.

Once enough nodes have responded, the cluster state is committed and a message
will be sent to all the nodes. The nodes then proceed to apply the new cluster
state to their internal state. The master node waits for all nodes to respond,
up to a timeout, before going ahead processing the next updates in the queue.
The `discovery.zen.publish_timeout` is set by default to 30 seconds and is
measured from the moment the publishing started. Both timeout settings can be
changed dynamically through the <<cluster-update-settings,cluster update
settings api>>

[float]
[[no-master-block]]
==== No master block

For the cluster to be fully operational, it must have an active master and the
number of running master eligible nodes must satisfy the
`discovery.zen.minimum_master_nodes` setting if set. The
`discovery.zen.no_master_block` settings controls what operations should be
rejected when there is no active master.

The `discovery.zen.no_master_block` setting has two valid options:

[horizontal]
`all`:: All operations on the node--i.e. both read & writes--will be rejected.
This also applies for api cluster state read or write operations, like the get
index settings, put mapping and cluster state api.
`write`:: (default) Write operations will be rejected. Read operations will
succeed, based on the last known cluster configuration.  This may result in
partial reads of stale data as this node may be isolated from the rest of the
cluster.

The `discovery.zen.no_master_block` setting doesn't apply to nodes-based apis
(for example cluster stats, node info and node stats apis).  Requests to these
apis will not be blocked and can run on any available node.