# IP forwarding for elastic search cluster **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** docker\ **Created:** [May 7, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ip-forwarding-for-elastic-search-cluster/231605 "2020-05-07T18:36:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Krish\_7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Krish\_7](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Krish_7)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ip-forwarding-for-elastic-search-cluster/231605/1 "2020-05-07T18:36:28Z")
Hi Elastic Team, I am new to Elastic search. Please help me to understand this . I have elastic search cluster with 3 master nodes and 5 data nodes also 3 logstash nodes . (Elastic search nodes are running in VM's and logstash and kibana are running as docker containers ) Does this setup required ip forwarding enabled ? if yes what is the reason. If i disable ip forwarding will it effect my cluster communication or data shipping ? Any replies would be appreciated ..!! Regards, Krishna ---
**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 7, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ip-forwarding-for-elastic-search-cluster/231605/2 "2020-05-07T23:27:07Z")
Please don't add tags for topics that are not related to your question 🙂 What do you mean by IP forwarding here? ---
**Author:** ![Krish\_7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Krish\_7](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Krish_7)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 4:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ip-forwarding-for-elastic-search-cluster/231605/3 "2020-05-08T04:49:59Z")
If we have elastic cluster setup as mentioned above. do we need IP forwarding enabled to communicate between nodes ? or other network hosts to ship data ? is there any dependency on below config ? In linux here is the configuration /etc/sysctl.conf net.ipv4.ip\_forward=1 ---
**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 8, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ip-forwarding-for-elastic-search-cluster/231605/4 "2020-05-08T05:26:57Z")
I can't find a reference to it in the docs, and I have never been aware of needing that. Unless anyone else with better understanding chimes in, I would suggest it's probably not necessary. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/ip-forwarding-for-elastic-search-cluster/231605/5 "2020-06-05T05:26:57Z")
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