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Last updated: Sep 24, 2026 10:34 UTC

Remove Kudu Masters (Ambari Multi-Master)

This page describes how to remove a Kudu master from an Ambari-managed multi-master deployment.

Ambari Service Component Management

Stop and Delete the Kudu Master Service

Before making configuration changes, ensure that the master you want to remove is properly stopped in Ambari:

  • Navigate to the Hosts page in the Ambari Web UI.
  • Click the host containing the Kudu Master component (for example, kudu3.acceldata.dvl).
  • In the Components section, locate the Kudu Master component.
  • Stop the component if it is still running.
  • Delete the component using the Delete option from the component drop-down menu.

Master Removal Command Execution

Run the kudu master remove command to remove the master from the cluster configuration.

kudu master remove <existing master comma separated list> <new_master_hostname>

Example: 

kudu master remove <existing master comma separated list> <new_master_hostname>

This command removes kudu3.acceldata.dvl from the cluster configuration. The remaining masters ([INLINE_CODE]kudu1.acceldata.dvl[/INLINE_CODE] and [INLINE_CODE]kudu2.acceldata.dvl[/INLINE_CODE]) now form the new master quorum.

Sample output:

I20250613 03:18:51.246625 1906910 tool_action_master.cc:566] Successfully removed master kudu3.acceldata.dvl:7051 from the cluster. Please follow the next steps from the Kudu administration documentation on "Removing Kudu Masters from a Multi-Master Deployment" or "Recovering from a dead Kudu Master in a Multi-Master Deployment" as appropriate.

WAL and Data Directory Cleanup

Remove the Write-Ahead Log (WAL) and data directories from the removed master to prevent it from rejoining the cluster.

rm -rf /var/lib/kudu/wal/

This step is especially important if a corrupted master is being removed. Allowing a corrupted master to rejoin the cluster can cause data loss.

Service Restart Sequence

Ambari automatically updates the master_addresses and [INLINE_CODE]tserver_master_addrs[/INLINE_CODE] configuration parameters for the remaining masters and tablet servers.

Restart the remaining masters one by one:

  • In Ambari, go to Kudu > Summary.
  • Restart the kudu1.acceldata.dvl master first.
  • Wait for it to show as healthy.
  • Restart the kudu2.acceldata.dvl master.

Restart all tablet servers:

  • Restart all tablet servers at once, or use Ambari’s Rolling Restart option.
  • In Ambari, go to Kudu > Summary.
  • Select all tablet servers.
  • Click Restart to apply the updated master configuration.

Verification Steps

Verify the cluster state by accessing the master web interface.

  • Open the web UI for each remaining master (http://<hostname>:8051/masters).
  • Verify that only the remaining masters are listed.
  • Confirm that one master is shown as LEADER and the other as FOLLOWER.

Run a Cluster Health Check

Run the following command to ensure that all tablet servers are properly connected to the updated master configuration:

kudu cluster ksck kudu1.acceldata.dvl:7051,kudu2.acceldata.dvl:7051