# Elasticsearch clustering process

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 3, 2017, 6:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646 "2017-08-03T06:35:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mruthyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@mruthyu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mruthyu)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 6:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646/1 "2017-08-03T06:35:06Z")

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I am trying to understand how the elasticsearch clustering works. Whether it considers cluster name to form a cluster and will pickup the cluster state settings from discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts host names? I think it is not necessary to give all host names which needs to be part of the elasticsearch cluster. So how it will decide about the specific hosts to be part of the cluster.

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**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:** [August 3, 2017, 6:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646/2 "2017-08-03T06:37:22Z")

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This is where dedicated masters work best, that way you only need 3 hosts listed there.

Otherwise look at using a DNS CNAME.

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**Author:** ![mruthyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@mruthyu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mruthyu)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 6:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646/3 "2017-08-03T06:58:33Z")

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Thank you. So mentioning the 3 dedicated master nodes in discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts setting is fine in all elasticsearch nodes? (master, data and coordinating).

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**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:** [August 3, 2017, 8:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646/4 "2017-08-03T08:54:31Z")

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Yes!

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**Author:** ![mruthyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@mruthyu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mruthyu)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 12:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646/5 "2017-08-03T12:00:32Z")

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Sure Thanks. So in this case if another node has same cluster name but not been configured with any of these three master nodes then it won't join this cluster right?

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**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:** [August 4, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646/6 "2017-08-04T22:46:45Z")

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> [@mruthyu](#):
>
> if another node has same cluster name but not been configured with any of these three master nodes then it won’t join this cluster right?

Yes.  
But that's not a good idea, because there is a possibility of confusion.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-clustering-process/95646/7 "2017-09-01T22:47:06Z")

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