# Is removing cluster.initial\_master\_nodes still necessary?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-removing-cluster-initial-master-nodes-still-necessary/284298>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 15, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-removing-cluster-initial-master-nodes-still-necessary/284298 "2021-09-15T14:50:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MSN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@MSN](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/MSN)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-removing-cluster-initial-master-nodes-still-necessary/284298/1 "2021-09-15T14:50:17Z")

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Hi,

The [documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.14/important-settings.html#initial_master_nodes) for elasticsearch 7.14 states, that the configuration setting `cluster.initial_master_nodes` has to be removed from the configuration file after a cluster has formed sucessfully and should be absent when a new node is added or the cluster is restarted.

While evaluating elasticsearch deployment options, I tried [ansible-elasticsearch](https://github.com/elastic/ansible-elasticsearch), which does not remove this option from elasticsearch.yml after the cluster is bootstraped successfully.

I already searched this forum and found this [Post](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/the-confusion-of-configuring-cluster-initial-master-nodes/229213), where @DavidTurner stated, that not removing this option could, under certain circumstances, lead to possible data loss and accidentially form a new cluster.

**My questions are:**

1. Is this still valid for elasticsearch 7.14.1?
2. Should the `cluster.initial_master_nodes` always get removed after cluster bootstraping?
3. Under what circumstances could data loss occur?

Thank you for your help!

Kind regards,  
Marc

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**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-removing-cluster-initial-master-nodes-still-necessary/284298/2 "2021-09-15T14:54:30Z")

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1. Yes.

2. Yes.

3. Too many to enumerate really but it's only rare circumstances involving other misconfigurations.

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**Author:** ![MSN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@MSN](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/MSN)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-removing-cluster-initial-master-nodes-still-necessary/284298/3 "2021-09-15T15:00:27Z")

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Thank you for the fast reply.

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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:** [October 13, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-removing-cluster-initial-master-nodes-still-necessary/284298/4 "2021-10-13T15:01:06Z")

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