[[cluster-fault-detection]] === Cluster fault detection The elected master periodically checks each of the nodes in the cluster to ensure that they are still connected and healthy. Each node in the cluster also periodically checks the health of the elected master. These checks are known respectively as _follower checks_ and _leader checks_. Elasticsearch allows these checks to occasionally fail or timeout without taking any action. It considers a node to be faulty only after a number of consecutive checks have failed. You can control fault detection behavior with <>. If the elected master detects that a node has disconnected, however, this situation is treated as an immediate failure. The master bypasses the timeout and retry setting values and attempts to remove the node from the cluster. Similarly, if a node detects that the elected master has disconnected, this situation is treated as an immediate failure. The node bypasses the timeout and retry settings and restarts its discovery phase to try and find or elect a new master. [[cluster-fault-detection-filesystem-health]] Additionally, each node periodically verifies that its data path is healthy by writing a small file to disk and then deleting it again. If a node discovers its data path is unhealthy then it is removed from the cluster until the data path recovers. You can control this behavior with the <>. [[cluster-fault-detection-cluster-state-publishing]] The elected master node will also remove nodes from the cluster if nodes are unable to apply an updated cluster state within a reasonable time. The timeout defaults to 2 minutes starting from the beginning of the cluster state update. Refer to <> for a more detailed description. [[cluster-fault-detection-troubleshooting]] ==== Troubleshooting an unstable cluster //tag::troubleshooting[] Normally, a node will only leave a cluster if deliberately shut down. If a node leaves the cluster unexpectedly, it's important to address the cause. A cluster in which nodes leave unexpectedly is unstable and can create several issues. For instance: * The cluster health may be yellow or red. * Some shards will be initializing and other shards may be failing. * Search, indexing, and monitoring operations may fail and report exceptions in logs. * The `.security` index may be unavailable, blocking access to the cluster. * The master may appear busy due to frequent cluster state updates. To troubleshoot a cluster in this state, first ensure the cluster has a <>. Next, focus on the nodes unexpectedly leaving the cluster ahead of all other issues. It will not be possible to solve other issues until the cluster has a stable master node and stable node membership. Diagnostics and statistics are usually not useful in an unstable cluster. These tools only offer a view of the state of the cluster at a single point in time. Instead, look at the cluster logs to see the pattern of behaviour over time. Focus particularly on logs from the elected master. When a node leaves the cluster, logs for the elected master include a message like this (with line breaks added to make it easier to read): [source,text] ---- [2022-03-21T11:02:35,513][INFO ][o.e.c.c.NodeLeftExecutor] [instance-0000000000] node-left: [{instance-0000000004}{bfcMDTiDRkietFb9v_di7w}{aNlyORLASam1ammv2DzYXA}{172.27.47.21}{172.27.47.21:19054}{m}] with reason [disconnected] ---- This message says that the `NodeLeftExecutor` on the elected master (`instance-0000000000`) processed a `node-left` task, identifying the node that was removed and the reason for its removal. When the node joins the cluster again, logs for the elected master will include a message like this (with line breaks added to make it easier to read): [source,text] ---- [2022-03-21T11:02:59,892][INFO ][o.e.c.c.NodeJoinExecutor] [instance-0000000000] node-join: [{instance-0000000004}{bfcMDTiDRkietFb9v_di7w}{UNw_RuazQCSBskWZV8ID_w}{172.27.47.21}{172.27.47.21:19054}{m}] with reason [joining after restart, removed [24s] ago with reason [disconnected]] ---- This message says that the `NodeJoinExecutor` on the elected master (`instance-0000000000`) processed a `node-join` task, identifying the node that was added to the cluster and the reason for the task. Other nodes may log similar messages, but report fewer details: [source,text] ---- [2020-01-29T11:02:36,985][INFO ][o.e.c.s.ClusterApplierService] [instance-0000000001] removed { {instance-0000000004}{bfcMDTiDRkietFb9v_di7w}{aNlyORLASam1ammv2DzYXA}{172.27.47.21}{172.27.47.21:19054}{m} {tiebreaker-0000000003}{UNw_RuazQCSBskWZV8ID_w}{bltyVOQ-RNu20OQfTHSLtA}{172.27.161.154}{172.27.161.154:19251}{mv} }, term: 14, version: 1653415, reason: Publication{term=14, version=1653415} ---- These messages are not especially useful for troubleshooting, so focus on the ones from the `NodeLeftExecutor` and `NodeJoinExecutor` which are only emitted on the elected master and which contain more details. If you don't see the messages from the `NodeLeftExecutor` and `NodeJoinExecutor`, check that: * You're looking at the logs for the elected master node. * The logs cover the correct time period. * Logging is enabled at `INFO` level. Nodes will also log a message containing `master node changed` whenever they start or stop following the elected master. You can use these messages to determine each node's view of the state of the master over time. If a node restarts, it will leave the cluster and then join the cluster again. When it rejoins, the `NodeJoinExecutor` will log that it processed a `node-join` task indicating that the node is `joining after restart`. If a node is unexpectedly restarting, look at the node's logs to see why it is shutting down. The <> API on the affected node will also provide some useful information about the situation. If the node did not restart then you should look at the reason for its departure more closely. Each reason has different troubleshooting steps, described below. There are three possible reasons: * `disconnected`: The connection from the master node to the removed node was closed. * `lagging`: The master published a cluster state update, but the removed node did not apply it within the permitted timeout. By default, this timeout is 2 minutes. Refer to <> for information about the settings which control this mechanism. * `followers check retry count exceeded`: The master sent a number of consecutive health checks to the removed node. These checks were rejected or timed out. By default, each health check times out after 10 seconds and {es} removes the node removed after three consecutively failed health checks. Refer to <> for information about the settings which control this mechanism. [discrete] ===== Diagnosing `disconnected` nodes Nodes typically leave the cluster with reason `disconnected` when they shut down, but if they rejoin the cluster without restarting then there is some other problem. {es} is designed to run on a fairly reliable network. It opens a number of TCP connections between nodes and expects these connections to remain open forever. If a connection is closed then {es} will try and reconnect, so the occasional blip should have limited impact on the cluster even if the affected node briefly leaves the cluster. In contrast, repeatedly-dropped connections will severely affect its operation. The connections from the elected master node to every other node in the cluster are particularly important. The elected master never spontaneously closes its outbound connections to other nodes. Similarly, once a connection is fully established, a node never spontaneously close its inbound connections unless the node is shutting down. If you see a node unexpectedly leave the cluster with the `disconnected` reason, something other than {es} likely caused the connection to close. A common cause is a misconfigured firewall with an improper timeout or another policy that's <>. It could also be caused by general connectivity issues, such as packet loss due to faulty hardware or network congestion. If you're an advanced user, you can get more detailed information about network exceptions by configuring the following loggers: [source,yaml] ---- logger.org.elasticsearch.transport.TcpTransport: DEBUG logger.org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.security.transport.netty4.SecurityNetty4Transport: DEBUG ---- In extreme cases, you may need to take packet captures using `tcpdump` to determine whether messages between nodes are being dropped or rejected by some other device on the network. [discrete] ===== Diagnosing `lagging` nodes {es} needs every node to process cluster state updates reasonably quickly. If a node takes too long to process a cluster state update, it can be harmful to the cluster. The master will remove these nodes with the `lagging` reason. Refer to <> for information about the settings which control this mechanism. Lagging is typically caused by performance issues on the removed node. However, a node may also lag due to severe network delays. To rule out network delays, ensure that `net.ipv4.tcp_retries2` is <>. Log messages that contain `warn threshold` may provide more information about the root cause. If you're an advanced user, you can get more detailed information about what the node was doing when it was removed by configuring the following logger: [source,yaml] ---- logger.org.elasticsearch.cluster.coordination.LagDetector: DEBUG ---- When this logger is enabled, {es} will attempt to run the <> API on the faulty node and report the results in the logs on the elected master. The results are compressed, encoded, and split into chunks to avoid truncation: [source,text] ---- [DEBUG][o.e.c.c.LagDetector ] [master] hot threads from node [{node}{g3cCUaMDQJmQ2ZLtjr-3dg}{10.0.0.1:9300}] lagging at version [183619] despite commit of cluster state version [183620] [part 1]: H4sIAAAAAAAA/x... [DEBUG][o.e.c.c.LagDetector ] [master] hot threads from node [{node}{g3cCUaMDQJmQ2ZLtjr-3dg}{10.0.0.1:9300}] lagging at version [183619] despite commit of cluster state version [183620] [part 2]: p7x3w1hmOQVtuV... [DEBUG][o.e.c.c.LagDetector ] [master] hot threads from node [{node}{g3cCUaMDQJmQ2ZLtjr-3dg}{10.0.0.1:9300}] lagging at version [183619] despite commit of cluster state version [183620] [part 3]: v7uTboMGDbyOy+... [DEBUG][o.e.c.c.LagDetector ] [master] hot threads from node [{node}{g3cCUaMDQJmQ2ZLtjr-3dg}{10.0.0.1:9300}] lagging at version [183619] despite commit of cluster state version [183620] [part 4]: 4tse0RnPnLeDNN... [DEBUG][o.e.c.c.LagDetector ] [master] hot threads from node [{node}{g3cCUaMDQJmQ2ZLtjr-3dg}{10.0.0.1:9300}] lagging at version [183619] despite commit of cluster state version [183620] (gzip compressed, base64-encoded, and split into 4 parts on preceding log lines) ---- To reconstruct the output, base64-decode the data and decompress it using `gzip`. For instance, on Unix-like systems: [source,sh] ---- cat lagdetector.log | sed -e 's/.*://' | base64 --decode | gzip --decompress ---- [discrete] ===== Diagnosing `follower check retry count exceeded` nodes Nodes sometimes leave the cluster with reason `follower check retry count exceeded` when they shut down, but if they rejoin the cluster without restarting then there is some other problem. {es} needs every node to respond to network messages successfully and reasonably quickly. If a node rejects requests or does not respond at all then it can be harmful to the cluster. If enough consecutive checks fail then the master will remove the node with reason `follower check retry count exceeded` and will indicate in the `node-left` message how many of the consecutive unsuccessful checks failed and how many of them timed out. Refer to <> for information about the settings which control this mechanism. Timeouts and failures may be due to network delays or performance problems on the affected nodes. Ensure that `net.ipv4.tcp_retries2` is <> to eliminate network delays as a possible cause for this kind of instability. Log messages containing `warn threshold` may give further clues about the cause of the instability. If the last check failed with an exception then the exception is reported, and typically indicates the problem that needs to be addressed. If any of the checks timed out then narrow down the problem as follows. include::../../troubleshooting/network-timeouts.asciidoc[tag=troubleshooting-network-timeouts-gc-vm] include::../../troubleshooting/network-timeouts.asciidoc[tag=troubleshooting-network-timeouts-packet-capture-fault-detection] include::../../troubleshooting/network-timeouts.asciidoc[tag=troubleshooting-network-timeouts-threads] By default the follower checks will time out after 30s, so if node departures are unpredictable then capture stack dumps every 15s to be sure that at least one stack dump was taken at the right time. [discrete] ===== Diagnosing `ShardLockObtainFailedException` failures If a node leaves and rejoins the cluster then {es} will usually shut down and re-initialize its shards. If the shards do not shut down quickly enough then {es} may fail to re-initialize them due to a `ShardLockObtainFailedException`. To gather more information about the reason for shards shutting down slowly, configure the following logger: [source,yaml] ---- logger.org.elasticsearch.env.NodeEnvironment: DEBUG ---- When this logger is enabled, {es} will attempt to run the <> API whenever it encounters a `ShardLockObtainFailedException`. The results are compressed, encoded, and split into chunks to avoid truncation: [source,text] ---- [DEBUG][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [master] hot threads while failing to obtain shard lock for [index][0] [part 1]: H4sIAAAAAAAA/x... [DEBUG][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [master] hot threads while failing to obtain shard lock for [index][0] [part 2]: p7x3w1hmOQVtuV... [DEBUG][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [master] hot threads while failing to obtain shard lock for [index][0] [part 3]: v7uTboMGDbyOy+... [DEBUG][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [master] hot threads while failing to obtain shard lock for [index][0] [part 4]: 4tse0RnPnLeDNN... [DEBUG][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [master] hot threads while failing to obtain shard lock for [index][0] (gzip compressed, base64-encoded, and split into 4 parts on preceding log lines) ---- To reconstruct the output, base64-decode the data and decompress it using `gzip`. For instance, on Unix-like systems: [source,sh] ---- cat shardlock.log | sed -e 's/.*://' | base64 --decode | gzip --decompress ---- //end::troubleshooting[]