[[modules-discovery-voting]]
=== Voting configurations

Each {es} cluster has a _voting configuration_, which is the set of
<<master-node,master-eligible nodes>> whose responses are counted when making
decisions such as electing a new master or committing a new cluster state.
Decisions are made only after a majority (more than half) of the nodes in the
voting configuration respond.

Usually the voting configuration is the same as the set of all the 
master-eligible nodes that are currently in the cluster. However, there are some
situations in which they may be different.

IMPORTANT: To ensure the cluster remains available, you **must not stop half or
more of the nodes in the voting configuration at the same time**. As long as more
than half of the voting nodes are available, the cluster can work normally. For
example, if there are three or four master-eligible nodes, the cluster
can tolerate one unavailable node. If there are two or fewer master-eligible
nodes, they must all remain available.

After a node joins or leaves the cluster, {es} reacts by automatically making
corresponding changes to the voting configuration in order to ensure that the
cluster is as resilient as possible. It is important to wait for this adjustment
to complete before you remove more nodes from the cluster. For more information,
see <<modules-discovery-adding-removing-nodes>>.

The current voting configuration is stored in the cluster state so you can
inspect its current contents as follows:

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
GET /_cluster/state?filter_path=metadata.cluster_coordination.last_committed_config
--------------------------------------------------

NOTE: The current voting configuration is not necessarily the same as the set of
all available master-eligible nodes in the cluster. Altering the voting
configuration involves taking a vote, so it takes some time to adjust the
configuration as nodes join or leave the cluster. Also, there are situations
where the most resilient configuration includes unavailable nodes or does not
include some available nodes. In these situations, the voting configuration
differs from the set of available master-eligible nodes in the cluster.

Larger voting configurations are usually more resilient, so Elasticsearch
normally prefers to add master-eligible nodes to the voting configuration after
they join the cluster. Similarly, if a node in the voting configuration
leaves the cluster and there is another master-eligible node in the cluster that
is not in the voting configuration then it is preferable to swap these two nodes
over. The size of the voting configuration is thus unchanged but its
resilience increases.

It is not so straightforward to automatically remove nodes from the voting
configuration after they have left the cluster. Different strategies have
different benefits and drawbacks, so the right choice depends on how the cluster
will be used. You can control whether the voting configuration automatically
shrinks by using the
<<modules-discovery-settings,`cluster.auto_shrink_voting_configuration` setting>>.

NOTE: If `cluster.auto_shrink_voting_configuration` is set to `true` (which is
the default and recommended value) and there are at least three master-eligible
nodes in the cluster, Elasticsearch remains capable of processing cluster state
updates as long as all but one of its master-eligible nodes are healthy.

There are situations in which Elasticsearch might tolerate the loss of multiple
nodes, but this is not guaranteed under all sequences of failures. If the
`cluster.auto_shrink_voting_configuration` setting is `false`, you must remove
departed nodes from the voting configuration manually. Use the
<<voting-config-exclusions,voting exclusions API>> to achieve the desired level
of resilience.

No matter how it is configured, Elasticsearch will not suffer from a 
"split-brain" inconsistency. The `cluster.auto_shrink_voting_configuration`
setting affects only its availability in the event of the failure of some of its
nodes and the administrative tasks that must be performed as nodes join and
leave the cluster.

[discrete]
==== Even numbers of master-eligible nodes

There should normally be an odd number of master-eligible nodes in a cluster.
If there is an even number, Elasticsearch leaves one of them out of the voting
configuration to ensure that it has an odd size. This omission does not decrease
the failure-tolerance of the cluster. In fact, improves it slightly: if the
cluster suffers from a network partition that divides it into two equally-sized
halves then one of the halves will contain a majority of the voting
configuration and will be able to keep operating. If all of the votes from
master-eligible nodes were counted, neither side would contain a strict majority
of the nodes and so the cluster would not be able to make any progress.

For instance if there are four master-eligible nodes in the cluster and the
voting configuration contained all of them, any quorum-based decision would
require votes from at least three of them. This situation means that the cluster
can tolerate the loss of only a single master-eligible node. If this cluster
were split into two equal halves, neither half would contain three
master-eligible nodes and the cluster would not be able to make any progress.
If the voting configuration contains only three of the four master-eligible
nodes, however, the cluster is still only fully tolerant to the loss of one
node, but quorum-based decisions require votes from two of the three voting
nodes. In the event of an even split, one half will contain two of the three
voting nodes so that half will remain available.

[discrete]
==== Setting the initial voting configuration

When a brand-new cluster starts up for the first time, it must elect its first
master node. To do this election, it needs to know the set of master-eligible
nodes whose votes should count. This initial voting configuration is known as
the _bootstrap configuration_ and is set in the
<<modules-discovery-bootstrap-cluster,cluster bootstrapping process>>.

It is important that the bootstrap configuration identifies exactly which nodes
should vote in the first election. It is not sufficient to configure each node
with an expectation of how many nodes there should be in the cluster. It is also
important to note that the bootstrap configuration must come from outside the
cluster: there is no safe way for the cluster to determine the bootstrap
configuration correctly on its own.

If the bootstrap configuration is not set correctly, when you start a brand-new
cluster there is a risk that you will accidentally form two separate clusters
instead of one. This situation can lead to data loss: you might start using both
clusters before you notice that anything has gone wrong and it is impossible to
merge them together later.

NOTE: To illustrate the problem with configuring each node to expect a certain
cluster size, imagine starting up a three-node cluster in which each node knows
that it is going to be part of a three-node cluster. A majority of three nodes
is two, so normally the first two nodes to discover each other form a cluster
and the third node joins them a short time later. However, imagine that four
nodes were erroneously started instead of three. In this case, there are enough
nodes to form two separate clusters. Of course if each node is started manually
then it's unlikely that too many nodes are started. If you're using an automated
orchestrator, however, it's certainly possible to get into this situation--
particularly if the orchestrator is not resilient to failures such as network
partitions.

The initial quorum is only required the very first time a whole cluster starts
up. New nodes joining an established cluster can safely obtain all the
information they need from the elected master. Nodes that have previously been
part of a cluster will have stored to disk all the information that is required
when they restart.
