Opster Team

March 2021

Run the Elasticsearch check-up to receive recommendations like this:

Run Check-Up

No master node was discovered in your cluster

Description

The Elasticsearch cluster will not start if the correct number of master nodes is not discovered in the configuration.....

Recommendations

Based on your specific ES deployment, you should check your discovery settings and add a....

1

X-PUT curl -H "Content-Type: [a customized recommendation]

Overview

An Elasticsearch cluster requires a master node to be identified in the cluster in order for it to start properly. Furthermore, the election of the master node requires that there be a quorum of 50% and one of the nodes must have voting rights. If the cluster lacks a quorum, it will not start. For further information please see this guide on the split-brain problem.

Possible causes

Incorrect discovery settings

If you are getting this warning in the logs:

Master node not discovered yet this node has not previously joined a bootstrapped cluster

Then the most likely explanation is that you have incorrect settings in elasticsearch.yml, which prevent the node from correctly discovering its peer nodes.

discovery.seed_hosts:
   - 192.168.1.1:9300
   - 192.168.1.2 
   - nodes.mycluster.com

The discovery seed hosts should contain a list of nodes in the cluster (of which at least one must be available the first time the node joins the cluster) in order for the discovery function to work.

If it is the first time the cluster has started, then the following setting is also important:

cluster.initial_master_nodes:
  - master-node-name1
  - master-node-name2
  - master-node-name3

Note that here the settings are the node names (not IP addresses) of eligible master nodes that have the setting:

node.master: true 

Master not elected

If you see the message:

master not discovered or elected yet, an election requires at least 2 nodes with ids from [UIDIdndidisz99dkhslihn, xkenktjsiasnKKKhdb s, YZ6m2ioDQWqi1cNnOteB6w]

This suggests that a number of master nodes previously existed in the cluster, but insufficient master nodes are now available. The likely cause is that master nodes have been removed from the cluster and so a quorum has not been reached to elect a new master node. If you have recently stopped master nodes, then you will need to add them back, or wait for Elasticsearch to adjust the quorum down to the actual number of master nodes available.

See https://opster.com/elasticsearch-glossary/elasticsearch-minimum-master-nodes-quorum/ for more information on this.

Node stability issues

If the nodes are under stress due to heavy indexing or searching, then this can cause them to become unavailable, which in turn can affect the capacity of the cluster to elect a new master. This is the main reason for using a dedicated master node. Learn more here: https://opster.com/elasticsearch-glossary/dedicated-master-node/ 

Master node checks are covered in Opster’s Elasticsearch Health Check-Up. The Check-Up analyzes your cluster to detect any errors or issues and provides you with recommendations to resolve them quickly and easily. If you’re having trouble with master nodes not being discovered, you can run the Check-Up for an accurate analysis of your settings and follow the instructions to ensure your operations continue running smoothly.

Run the Elasticsearch check-up to receive recommendations like this:

Run Check-Up

No master node was discovered in your cluster

Description

The Elasticsearch cluster will not start if the correct number of master nodes is not discovered in the configuration.....

Recommendations

Based on your specific ES deployment, you should check your discovery settings and add a....

1

X-PUT curl -H "Content-Type: [a customized recommendation]