how to start elastic search in non cluster mode

Question

I have two different machines running elastic search server instances. They automatically create a cluster and changes made on one instance reflect on other instance on different machine. I have changed the cluster.name property in elasticsearch.yml file in config folder and the issue is resolved. I wanted to know if i can start elastic search server instance in non-cluster mode ?

Answer 1

You can't start the es server in non-cluster mode. But if you want the two servers to run independently (in its own cluster), there are 2 options that I can think of:

1. Disable multicast and don't set the hosts for them in unicast
2. Change the cluster.name to make them have different names

Answer 2

The easiest is to set node.local: true

This prevents elasticsearch from trying to connect to other nodes.

Using a custom name is also a good idea in any case just to prevent unintended exchange of data. Use something else for production, testing, and development.