Sorry for the confusion in terminology, I was unfamiliar with the exact 
leader/follower semantics previously. 

So if all connected servers update their config file, does that mean that 
non-voting followers who aren't part of the new ensemble will lose the entry 
specific to them in their config file?  I can test this myself, but getting an 
inside perspective is very helpful. 

Thanks again for the help!
Jared

On Jul 27, 2012, at 6:55 PM, Alexander Shraer <[email protected]> wrote:

> Yes, any number of followers which are not in the configuration can just 
> connect and listen in. This has always been the case, also in 3.4, I just 
> made use of this for the purpose of adding members during reconfiguration. 
> Moreover, in 3.4 there this bug ZOOKEEPER-1113
> where the leader actually counts the votes of anyone connected, regardless of 
> config membership :) This is fixed in ZK-107, so they are really non-voting 
> followers. 
> 
> >   I am assuming that's the case, and that it is a follower (and not 
> > participant) by virtue of not being in the official configuration stored in 
> > zookeeper itself. 
> 
> Follower and participant types of servers is not something that was defined 
> in ZK-107. In ZooKeeper every follower/leader is a "participant". Its just 
> that the votes of participants that are not in the configuration are not 
> counted that's why we call them non-voting followers. BTW, obviously a 
> non-voting follower can not become leader (like ZK-1113 this was also not 
> enforced before ZK-107).
> 
> > And a followup... does zookeeper only overwrite the dynamic 
> > configuration file for nodes that are voting participants?  Such that if I 
> > started a follower and then left it running through some 
> > reconfigurations, its file would not get updated if it was never added as 
> > part of those reconfigurations?
> 
> No, as soon as it connects to the current leader, its dynamic config file is 
> overwritten with the current configuration as part of the synchronization 
> with the leader. Every time a new configuration is committed, all connected 
> servers (voting, non-voting, observers) will update their dynamic config 
> file, doesn't matter if they're in the config.
> 
> Alex
> 
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 5:35 PM, Jared Cantwell <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> So does just having the server started and pointing to the existing ensemble 
> automatically make it a "non participating follower"?  In other words, there 
> is no need to inform the existing nodes that this new node is joining as a 
> follower?  And to extend that, there could be any number of followers that 
> are simply listening in on the event stream?  I am assuming that's the case, 
> and that it is a follower (and not participant) by virtue of not being in the 
> official configuration stored in zookeeper itself.
> 
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 6:29 PM, Alexander Shraer <[email protected]> wrote:
> there are just two supported types - participant and observer.
> (participant can act as either follower or leader).
> 
> So you can either write participant or leave it unspecified (which means 
> participant by default). Also, since the ip is the same for all your ports 
> you don't have to write it twice.  All of these should work in the same way:
> 
> server.5=10.10.5.17:2182:2183:participant;10.10.5.17:2181
> server.5=10.10.5.17:2182:2183:participant;2181
> server.5=10.10.5.17:2182:2183;10.10.5.17:2181
> server.5=10.10.5.17:2182:2183;2181
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 5:25 PM, Jared Cantwell <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> Thanks Alex for the response.  Our current lines in the configuration look 
> like this:
> 
> server.5=10.10.5.17:2182:2183:participant;10.10.5.17:2181
> 
> For the new servers is it ok for their entry to have "participant"?  Or 
> should that be something different (e.g. "follower")?
> 
> ~Jared
> 
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 6:20 PM, Alexander Shraer <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Jared,
> 
> Thanks for experimenting with this feature. 
> 
> The idea is that new servers join as "non voting followers". Which means that 
> they act as normal followers but the leader ignores their votes since they 
> are not part of the current configuration. The leader only counts their votes 
> during the reconfiguration itself (to make sure a quorum of the new config is 
> ready before the new config can be committed/activated). Defining them as 
> observers is not a good idea, for example in your scenario if they were 
> observers they wouldn't be able to participate in the reconfiguration 
> protocol (which is similar to the protocol for committing any other operation 
> in which observers don't participate) and since we don't have a quorum of 
> followers in the new config that can ack, reconfiguration would throw an 
> exception (of KeeperException.NEWCONFIGNOQUORUM type). 
> Of course if you intend them to be observers in the new config you can define 
> them as observers since their votes are not needed during reconfig anyway.
> 
> You're right, the new servers must be able to connect to the old quorum. At 
> minimum, their file should contain the current leader, but 
> you can also copy the current configuration file to the new members if you 
> wish. 
> 
> In addition, you should add a line for the member itself, so that server F 
> appears in F's config file (Its not important that the other new servers 
> appear in F's file, but it won't hurt either, so you can do a union of old 
> and new if you wish). The constructor of QuorumPeer checks that the server 
> itself is in the configuration its started with, otherwise its not going to 
> run. This check has always been there, but I'm thinking of possibly changing 
> it in the future.
> 
> As soon as F connects to the leader, its config file will be overwritten with 
> the current config file as part of the synchronization process. 
> 
> Alex
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 10:06 AM, Jared Cantwell <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We are testing integration with 3.5.0 and dynamic membership and I have a
> question.  If I have a current set of servers in my ensemble {A,B,C,D,E}
> and I want to reconfigure the ensemble to {D,E,F,G,H}, how should the
> dynamic config file on servers F,G,H be configured on startup?  Should they
> have the old ensemble, the new ensemble, or the union of both ensembles?
>  It seems like these new servers need to  know about the old quorum, but
> since they aren't part of it yet its not clear to me how they should be
> configured.  Should there be an intermediate configuration with F,G, and H
> as simply Observers?
> 
> I can't find much documentation on this so I want to make sure I understand
> things correctly.
> 
> Thanks!
> ~Jared
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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