---
layout: "intro"
page_title: "Clustering"
sidebar_current: "getting-started-cluster"
description: |-
  Join another Nomad client to create your first cluster.
---

# Clustering

We have started our first agent and run a job against it in development mode.
This demonstrates the ease of use and the workflow of Nomad, but did not show how
this could be extended to a scalable, production-grade configuration. In this step,
we will create our first real cluster with multiple nodes.

## Starting the Server

The first step is to create the config file for the server. Either download the
[file from the repository][server.hcl], or paste this into a file called
`server.hcl`:

```hcl
# Increase log verbosity
log_level = "DEBUG"

# Setup data dir
data_dir = "/tmp/server1"

# Enable the server
server {
    enabled = true

    # Self-elect, should be 3 or 5 for production
    bootstrap_expect = 1
}
```

This is a fairly minimal server configuration file, but it
is enough to start an agent in server only mode and have it
elected as a leader. The major change that should be made for
production is to run more than one server, and to change the
corresponding `bootstrap_expect` value.

Once the file is created, start the agent in a new tab:

```text
$ nomad agent -config server.hcl
==> WARNING: Bootstrap mode enabled! Potentially unsafe operation.
==> Starting Nomad agent...
==> Nomad agent configuration:

                Client: false
             Log Level: DEBUG
                Region: global (DC: dc1)
                Server: true
               Version: 0.7.0

==> Nomad agent started! Log data will stream in below:

    [INFO] serf: EventMemberJoin: nomad.global 127.0.0.1
    [INFO] nomad: starting 4 scheduling worker(s) for [service batch _core]
    [INFO] raft: Node at 127.0.0.1:4647 [Follower] entering Follower state
    [INFO] nomad: adding server nomad.global (Addr: 127.0.0.1:4647) (DC: dc1)
    [WARN] raft: Heartbeat timeout reached, starting election
    [INFO] raft: Node at 127.0.0.1:4647 [Candidate] entering Candidate state
    [DEBUG] raft: Votes needed: 1
    [DEBUG] raft: Vote granted. Tally: 1
    [INFO] raft: Election won. Tally: 1
    [INFO] raft: Node at 127.0.0.1:4647 [Leader] entering Leader state
    [INFO] nomad: cluster leadership acquired
    [INFO] raft: Disabling EnableSingleNode (bootstrap)
    [DEBUG] raft: Node 127.0.0.1:4647 updated peer set (2): [127.0.0.1:4647]
```

We can see above that client mode is disabled, and that we are
only running as the server. This means that this server will manage
state and make scheduling decisions but will not run any tasks.
Now we need some agents to run tasks!

## Starting the Clients

Similar to the server, we must first configure the clients. Either download
the configuration for `client1` and `client2` from the
[repository here](https://github.com/hashicorp/nomad/tree/master/demo/vagrant), or
paste the following into `client1.hcl`:

```hcl
# Increase log verbosity
log_level = "DEBUG"

# Setup data dir
data_dir = "/tmp/client1"

# Give the agent a unique name. Defaults to hostname
name = "client1"

# Enable the client
client {
    enabled = true

    # For demo assume we are talking to server1. For production,
    # this should be like "nomad.service.consul:4647" and a system
    # like Consul used for service discovery.
    servers = ["127.0.0.1:4647"]
}

# Modify our port to avoid a collision with server1
ports {
    http = 5656
}
```

Copy that file to `client2.hcl`. Change the `data_dir` to be `/tmp/client2`,
the `name` to `client2`, and the `http` port to 5657. Once you have created
both `client1.hcl` and `client2.hcl`, open a tab for each and start the agents:

```text
$ sudo nomad agent -config client1.hcl
==> Starting Nomad agent...
==> Nomad agent configuration:

                Client: true
             Log Level: DEBUG
                Region: global (DC: dc1)
                Server: false
               Version: 0.7.0

==> Nomad agent started! Log data will stream in below:

    [DEBUG] client: applied fingerprints [host memory storage arch cpu]
    [DEBUG] client: available drivers [docker exec]
    [DEBUG] client: node registration complete
    ...
```

In the output we can see the agent is running in client mode only.
This agent will be available to run tasks but will not participate
in managing the cluster or making scheduling decisions.

Using the [`node status` command](/docs/commands/node/status.html)
we should see both nodes in the `ready` state:

```text 
$ nomad node status
ID        DC   Name     Class   Drain  Eligibility  Status
fca62612  dc1  client1  <none>  false  eligible     ready
c887deef  dc1  client2  <none>  false  eligible     ready
```

We now have a simple three node cluster running. The only difference
between a demo and full production cluster is that we are running a
single server instead of three or five.

## Submit a Job

Now that we have a simple cluster, we can use it to schedule a job.
We should still have the `example.nomad` job file from before, but
verify that the `count` is still set to 3.

Then, use the [`job run` command](/docs/commands/job/run.html) to submit the job:

```text
$ nomad job run example.nomad
==> Monitoring evaluation "8e0a7cf9"
    Evaluation triggered by job "example"
    Evaluation within deployment: "0917b771"
    Allocation "501154ac" created: node "c887deef", group "cache"
    Allocation "7e2b3900" created: node "fca62612", group "cache"
    Allocation "9c66fcaf" created: node "c887deef", group "cache"
    Evaluation status changed: "pending" -> "complete"
==> Evaluation "8e0a7cf9" finished with status "complete"
```

We can see in the output that the scheduler assigned two of the
tasks for one of the client nodes and the remaining task to the
second client.

We can again use the [`status` command](/docs/commands/status.html) to verify:

```
$ nomad status example
ID          = example
Name        = example
Submit Date   = 07/26/17 16:34:58 UTC
Type        = service
Priority    = 50
Datacenters = dc1
Status      = running
Periodic    = false
Parameterized = false

Summary
Task Group  Queued  Starting  Running  Failed  Complete  Lost
cache       0       0         3        0       0         0

Latest Deployment
ID          = fc49bd6c
Status      = running
Description = Deployment is running

Deployed
Task Group  Desired  Placed  Healthy  Unhealthy
cache       3        3       0        0

Allocations
ID        Eval ID   Node ID   Task Group  Desired  Status   Created At
501154ac  8e0a7cf9  c887deef  cache       run      running  08/08/16 21:03:19 CDT
7e2b3900  8e0a7cf9  fca62612  cache       run      running  08/08/16 21:03:19 CDT
9c66fcaf  8e0a7cf9  c887deef  cache       run      running  08/08/16 21:03:19 CDT
```

We can see that all our tasks have been allocated and are running.
Once we are satisfied that our job is happily running, we can tear
it down with `nomad job stop`.

## Next Steps

Nomad is now up and running. The cluster can be entirely managed from the commandline,
but Nomad also comes with a web interface that is hosted alongside the HTTP API.
Next, we'll [visit the UI in the browser](ui.html).

[server.hcl]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/nomad/master/demo/vagrant/server.hcl
