# Cannot update minimum\_master\_nodes

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 17, 2015, 8:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803 "2015-05-17T08:22:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![oellegaard](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/oellegaard/32/44832_2.png) [@oellegaard](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/oellegaard)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 8:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803/1 "2015-05-17T08:22:26Z")

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Hi there!

When sending an update settings request to /\_cluster/settings with minimum\_master\_nodes I get the following log entry on my master nodes. It also does not apply the settings.

[2015-05-16 21:49:54,425][WARN][action.admin.cluster.settings] [i-148083f2] ignoring persistent setting [discovery.zen.minimum\_master\_nodes], not dynamically updateable

I've searched all over mailing lists and asked on IRC, but I really cannot tell why this doesn't work. I'm using 1.5.1 on ubuntu and I am using the EC2 discovery plugin, if that matters.

Kind regards,  
Kristian

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803/2 "2015-05-17T23:39:42Z")

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> [@oellegaard](#):
>
> ignoring persistent setting [discovery.zen.minimum\_master\_nodes], not dynamically updateable

It's not something you can change persistently on the fly, which is exactly what the error says.

Try passing it as a transient setting.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![oellegaard](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/oellegaard/32/44832_2.png) [@oellegaard](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/oellegaard)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2015, 7:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803/3 "2015-05-18T07:32:22Z")

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Hi Mark,

It also gives the same error if I try with transient. Furthermore, the docs under "Important Configuration Changes" [1] does indeed recommend applying this as a persistent setting, which I believe is the only thing that makes sense anyway, because you definitely want to keep this setting after a cluster reboot. If you don't you would most likely lose all your data.

[1] [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/master/\_important\_configuration\_changes.html#\_minimum\_master\_nodes](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/master/_important_configuration_changes.html#_minimum_master_nodes)

Kind regards,

Kristian

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2015, 7:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803/4 "2015-05-18T07:41:26Z")

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If you apply that to your elasticsearch.yml it will work.

Can you paste the call(s) to ES you are trying?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![oellegaard](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/oellegaard/32/44832_2.png) [@oellegaard](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/oellegaard)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803/5 "2015-05-18T07:48:06Z")

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Certainly!

```
$ curl -XPUT localhost:9200/_cluster/settings -d '{
     "persistent" : {
         "discovery.zen.minimum_master_nodes" : 2
     }
 }'

```

Which returns:

```
{"acknowledged":true,"persistent":{},"transient":{}}

```

For the record, this is my setup:

```
$ curl localhost:9200/_cat/nodes
localhost 127.0.0.1 2 8 0.00 - * i-c7849420
localhost 127.0.0.1 1 7 0.00 - m i-148083f2
localhost 127.0.0.1 5 10 0.00 - - i-57ddceb0
localhost 127.0.0.1 1 2 0.00 d - i-52898ab4
localhost 127.0.0.1 2 7 0.00 - m i-ce8a8928

```

As it indicates, I have three dedicated master nodes, one client node as well as one data node.

EDIT: Updating elasticsearch.yml on a master node and restarting doesn't have any effect. Didn't try changing it on all nodes and restarting the entire cluster, though.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2015, 8:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803/6 "2015-05-18T08:24:44Z")

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Turns out this was [a bug](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-cloud-aws/commit/e00c099f189cf4783834d38d3f7757a4e5bd2eed) in the AWS plugin.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-update-minimum-master-nodes/803/7 "2017-07-06T00:13:35Z")

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