Replacing a Node

At some point, for various reasons, you might need to replace a node in your Riak cluster (which is different from recovering a failed node). Here is the recommended way to go about replacing a node.

Back up your data directory on the node in question. In this example scenario, we’ll call the node riak4:
```
sudo tar -czf riak_backup.tar.gz /var/lib/riak /etc/riak
```
If you have any unforeseen issues at any point in the node replacement process, you can restore the node’s data from this backup.
Download and install Riak on the new node you wish to bring into the cluster and have it replace the riak4 node. We’ll call the new node riak7 for the purpose of this example.
Start the new riak7 node with riak start:
```
riak start
```
Plan the join of the new riak7 node to an existing node already participating in the cluster; for example riak0 with the riak-admin cluster join command executed on the new riak7 node:
```
riak-admin cluster join riak0
```
Plan the replacement of the existing riak4 node with the new riak7 node using the riak-admin cluster replace command:
```
riak-admin cluster replace riak4 riak7
```
Single Nodes
If a node is started singly using default settings (as, for example, you might do when you are building your first test environment), you will need to remove the ring files from the data directory after you edit `/etc/vm.args`. `riak-admin cluster replace` will not work as the node has not been joined to a cluster.
Examine the proposed cluster changes with the riak-admin cluster plan command executed on the new riak7 node:
```
riak-admin cluster plan
```
If the changes are correct, you can commit them with the riak-admin cluster commit command:
```
riak-admin cluster commit
```
If you need to clear the proposed plan and start over, use riak-admin cluster clear:
```
riak-admin cluster clear
```

Once you have successfully replaced the node, it should begin leaving the cluster. You can check on ring readiness after replacing the node with the riak-admin ringready and riak-admin member-status commands.

Ring Settling

You’ll need to make sure that no other ring changes occur between the time when you start the new node and the ring settles with the new IP info.

The ring is considered settled when the new node reports true when you run the riak-admin ringready command.