# HA Elastic Stack, should I use a load balancer?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ha-elastic-stack-should-i-use-a-load-balancer/93236>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 14, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ha-elastic-stack-should-i-use-a-load-balancer/93236 "2017-07-14T19:00:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stuffandthings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stuffandthings](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stuffandthings)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ha-elastic-stack-should-i-use-a-load-balancer/93236/1 "2017-07-14T19:00:43Z")

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I'm building up the architecture for our Elastic Stack. We'll be ingesting tons of log data, so I'm opting for 3 dedicated master nodes and 6 dedicated data nodes.

I'm going to be using Logstash for the log ingestion and filtering, and Kibana for viewing.

My question is, should I put a load balancer in front of the 3 master nodes? Both Logstash and Kibana configurations will need an elasticsearch host address, given that I have 3 different addresses it makes sense to load balance. I'm seeing many resources online suggesting that a load balancer is unnecessary, but in the case where we can only hardcode a single access there isn't another way. Am I correct?

Furthermore, would I connect Kibana to my master node or does it need to be connected to a data node?

EDIT: I should also note that I have a 1 master, and 2 data nodes per Availability Zone.

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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:** [July 15, 2017, 8:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ha-elastic-stack-should-i-use-a-load-balancer/93236/2 "2017-07-15T08:24:15Z")

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If you are setting up dedicated master nodes then don't point anything at them.  
The LB should point to the data nodes.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stuffandthings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stuffandthings](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stuffandthings)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ha-elastic-stack-should-i-use-a-load-balancer/93236/3 "2017-07-15T13:13:39Z")

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Not sure I understand that at all...

So both logstash and kibana will point to a load balancer that's pointing to the data nodes. What are the master nodes providing me with then?

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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:** [July 15, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ha-elastic-stack-should-i-use-a-load-balancer/93236/4 "2017-07-15T20:58:58Z")

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Cluster availability and redundancy.

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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:** [August 12, 2017, 8:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ha-elastic-stack-should-i-use-a-load-balancer/93236/5 "2017-08-12T20:59:26Z")

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