On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Gary Dusbabek <gdusba...@gmail.com> wrote: > It is impossible to properly bootstrap a new node into a system where > there are not enough nodes to satisfy the replication factor. The > cluster as it stands doesn't contain all the data you are asking it to > replicate on the new node.
Ok, maybe I'm thinking of replication_factor backwards. I took it to mean how many nodes would have *full* copies of the whole of the keyspace's data, in which case with my keyspace with replication_factor=2 the still-alive node would have 100% of the data to replicate to the wiped-clean node--in which case all the data would be there to bootstrap. I was assuming replication_factor=2 in a 2-node cluster == both nodes having a full replica of the data. Do I have that wrong? What's also confusing is that I did this same test on a clean node that wasn't clustered yet (which is interesting that it doesn't complain then about replication_factor > # of nodes), so unless it was throwing away data as I was inserting it, it'd all be there. Is the general rule then that the max. replication factor must be #_of_nodes-1 then? If replication_factor==#_of_nodes, then if you lost a box, it seems like your cluster would be toast.
