Before you begin reading this guide, we recommend you run Elasticsearch Error Check-Up which analyzes 2 JSON files to detect many errors.
To easily locate the root cause and resolve this issue try AutoOps for Elasticsearch & OpenSearch. It diagnoses problems by analyzing hundreds of metrics collected by a lightweight agent and offers guidance for resolving them.
This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” Failed to send join request to master ; reason ; tried times ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: discovery, index, join, master and request.
Overview
In Elasticsearch, an index (plural: indices) contains a schema and can have one or more shards and replicas. An Elasticsearch index is divided into shards and each shard is an instance of a Lucene index.
Indices are used to store the documents in dedicated data structures corresponding to the data type of fields. For example, text fields are stored inside an inverted index whereas numeric and geo fields are stored inside BKD trees.
Examples
Create index
The following example is based on Elasticsearch version 5.x onwards. An index with two shards, each having one replica will be created with the name test_index1
PUT /test_index1?pretty
{
"settings" : {
"number_of_shards" : 2,
"number_of_replicas" : 1
},
"mappings" : {
"properties" : {
"tags" : { "type" : "keyword" },
"updated_at" : { "type" : "date" }
}
}
}List indices
All the index names and their basic information can be retrieved using the following command:
GET _cat/indices?v
Index a document
Let’s add a document in the index with the command below:
PUT test_index1/_doc/1
{
"tags": [
"opster",
"elasticsearch"
],
"date": "01-01-2020"
}Query an index
GET test_index1/_search
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}Query multiple indices
It is possible to search multiple indices with a single request. If it is a raw HTTP request, index names should be sent in comma-separated format, as shown in the example below, and in the case of a query via a programming language client such as python or Java, index names are to be sent in a list format.
GET test_index1,test_index2/_search
Delete indices
DELETE test_index1
Common problems
- It is good practice to define the settings and mapping of an Index wherever possible because if this is not done, Elasticsearch tries to automatically guess the data type of fields at the time of indexing. This automatic process may have disadvantages, such as mapping conflicts, duplicate data and incorrect data types being set in the index. If the fields are not known in advance, it’s better to use dynamic index templates.
- Elasticsearch supports wildcard patterns in Index names, which sometimes aids with querying multiple indices, but can also be very destructive too. For example, It is possible to delete all the indices in a single command using the following commands:
DELETE /*
To disable this, you can add the following lines in the elasticsearch.yml:
action.destructive_requires_name: true
Overview
The process known as discovery occurs when an Elasticsearch node starts, restarts or loses contact with the master node for any reason. In those cases, the node needs to contact other nodes in the cluster to find any existing master node or initiate the election of a new master node.
How it works
Upon startup, each node looks for other nodes, firstly by contacting the IP addresses of eligible master nodes held in the previous cluster state. If they are not available, it will look for nodes based upon the seed host provider mechanisms available.
Seed host providers may be defined in 3 ways: list based, file based or plugin based. All of these methods provide a list of IP addresses or hostnames which the node should contact in order to obtain a list of master eligible nodes. The node will contact all of these addresses in turn, until either an active master is found, or failing that, until sufficient nodes can be found to elect a new master node.
Examples
The simplest form is to define a list of seed host providers in elasticsearch.yml:
discovery.seed_hosts: - 192.168.1.10:9300 - 192.168.1.11 - seeds.mydomain.com
An alternative way is to refer to a file using the following setting:
discovery.seed_providers: file
The file MUST be placed in the following filepath: $ES_PATH_CONF/unicast_hosts.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
Note that the use of a port is optional. If not used, then the default port range of 9300-9400 will be used.
If you use AWS or GCS then you can install and use a plugin to obtain a list of seed hosts from an API. A plugin also exists for Azure but is deprecated since version 5.
AWS plugin
A typical configuration could be as follows:
discovery.seed_providers: ec2 discovery.ec2.tag.role: master discovery.ec2.tag.environment: dev discovery.ec2.endpoint: ec2.us-east-1.amazonaws.com cloud.node.auto_attributes: true cluster.routing.allocation.awareness.attributes: aws_availability_zone
The above configuration would look for all nodes with a tag called “environment” set to “dev” and a tag called “role” set to “master”, in the AWS zone us-east-1. The last two lines set up cluster routing allocation awareness based upon aws availability zones. (Not necessary, but nice to have).
GCE plugin
A typical configuration could be as follows:
discovery.seed_providers: gce cloud.gce.project_id: <your-google-project-id> cloud.gce.zone: <your-zone> discovery.gce.tags: <my-tag-name>
The above configuration would look for all virtual machines inside your project, zone and with a tag set to the tag name you provide.
Notes and good things to know
Cluster formation depends on correct setup of the network.host settings in elasticsearch.yml. Make sure that the nodes can reach each other across the network using their IP addresses / hostname, and are not getting blocked due to firewall settings on the ports required.
Log Context
Log “Failed to send join request to master [{}]; reason [{}]; tried [{}] times” classname is ZenDiscovery.java.
We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
return true;
} catch (Exception e) {
final Throwable unwrap = ExceptionsHelper.unwrapCause(e);
if (unwrap instanceof NotMasterException) {
if (++joinAttempt == this.joinRetryAttempts) {
logger.info("failed to send join request to master [{}]; reason [{}]; tried [{}] times"; masterNode;
ExceptionsHelper.detailedMessage(e); joinAttempt);
return false;
} else {
logger.trace("master {} failed with [{}]. retrying... (attempts done: [{}])"; masterNode;
ExceptionsHelper.detailedMessage(e); joinAttempt);
