# Unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes error in ES 7.6.2

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes-error-in-es-7-6-2/229718>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** windows-installer\
**Created:** [April 24, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes-error-in-es-7-6-2/229718 "2020-04-24T20:07:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fstewart](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/fstewart/32/67085_2.png) [@fstewart](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fstewart)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes-error-in-es-7-6-2/229718/1 "2020-04-24T20:07:53Z")

</div>

According to the discussion and breaking doc in [this post](Https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes/174102), ES 7.x should recognize the setting cluster.initial\_master\_nodes.

Here's the yml after installing ES **7.6.2** on Windows 7:

```auto
bootstrap.memory_lock: true
cluster.initial_master_nodes:
  - NEWUSER-PC
cluster.name: elasticsearch
http.port: 9200
node.data: true
node.ingest: true
node.master: true
node.max_local_storage_nodes: 1
node.name: NEWUSER-PC
path.data: C:\ProgramData\Elastic\Elasticsearch\data
path.logs: C:\ProgramData\Elastic\Elasticsearch\logs
transport.tcp.port: 9300
xpack.license.self_generated.type: basic
xpack.security.enabled: false

```

Here's the exception logged after running elasticsearch.bat to start the service:

```auto
Exception
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: **unknown setting [cluster.initial_master_nodes.0]** please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings
	at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:293) ~[elasticsearch-6.0.0-rc1.jar:6.0.0-rc1]

```

I notice the es **jar version is 6.0.0**. Which version number is in question?

**UPDATE** :

changed setting to:

```auto
discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts: ["NEWUSER-PC"]

```

but still get

```auto
Exception
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: unknown setting [cluster.initial_master_nodes.0] please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings

```

If the service startup is not reading the setting from the yml, how do I modify it so the service can start?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 11:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes-error-in-es-7-6-2/229718/2 "2020-04-25T11:11:03Z")

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It seems you are running Elasticsearch 6.0 and not 7.6, which is why the new ly added settings are not valid.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fstewart](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/fstewart/32/67085_2.png) [@fstewart](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fstewart)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes-error-in-es-7-6-2/229718/3 "2020-04-25T17:11:27Z")

</div>

See UPDATE. I tried the v6 setting but got same error which indicates the setting isn't being read from the yml. Thoughts as to what's going on?

NOTE: I used the [Windows download for ES v 7.6.2](https://www.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch). This generated the yml with the problem setting, which I changed to comply with v6.0 but the problem persisted.

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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:** [May 23, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unknown-setting-cluster-initial-master-nodes-error-in-es-7-6-2/229718/4 "2020-05-23T17:11:29Z")

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