--- layout: intro page_title: Running Nomad sidebar_title: Running Nomad description: 'Learn about the Nomad agent, and the lifecycle of running and stopping.' --- # Running Nomad Nomad relies on a long running agent on every machine in the cluster. The agent can run either in server or client mode. Each region must have at least one server, though a cluster of 3 or 5 servers is recommended. A single server deployment is _**highly**_ discouraged as data loss is inevitable in a failure scenario. All other agents run in client mode. A Nomad client is a very lightweight process that registers the host machine, performs heartbeating, and runs the tasks that are assigned to it by the servers. The agent must be run on every node that is part of the cluster so that the servers can assign work to those machines. ## Starting the Agent For simplicity, we will run a single Nomad agent in development mode. This mode is used to quickly start an agent that is acting as a client and server to test job configurations or prototype interactions. It should _**not**_ be used in production as it does not persist state. ```shell $ sudo nomad agent -dev ==> Starting Nomad agent... ==> Nomad agent configuration: Client: true Log Level: DEBUG Region: global (DC: dc1) Server: true ==> 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] client: using alloc directory /tmp/NomadClient599911093 [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] fingerprint.network: Ethtool not found, checking /sys/net speed file [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] raft: Disabling EnableSingleNode (bootstrap) [DEBUG] raft: Node 127.0.0.1:4647 updated peer set (2): [127.0.0.1:4647] [INFO] nomad: cluster leadership acquired [DEBUG] client: applied fingerprints [arch cpu host memory storage network] [DEBUG] client: available drivers [docker exec java] [DEBUG] client: node registration complete [DEBUG] client: updated allocations at index 1 (0 allocs) [DEBUG] client: allocs: (added 0) (removed 0) (updated 0) (ignore 0) [DEBUG] client: state updated to ready ``` As you can see, the Nomad agent has started and has output some log data. From the log data, you can see that our agent is running in both client and server mode, and has claimed leadership of the cluster. Additionally, the local client has been registered and marked as ready. -> **Note:** Typically any agent running in client mode must be run with root level privilege. Nomad makes use of operating system primitives for resource isolation which require elevated permissions. The agent will function as non-root, but certain task drivers will not be available. ## Cluster Nodes If you run [`nomad node status`](/docs/commands/node/status) in another terminal, you can see the registered nodes of the Nomad cluster: ```shell $ nomad node status ID DC Name Class Drain Eligibility Status 171a583b dc1 nomad false eligible ready ``` The output shows our Node ID, which is a randomly generated UUID, its datacenter, node name, node class, drain mode and current status. We can see that our node is in the ready state, and task draining is currently off. The agent is also running in server mode, which means it is part of the [gossip protocol](/docs/internals/gossip) used to connect all the server instances together. We can view the members of the gossip ring using the [`server members`](/docs/commands/server/members) command: ```shell $ nomad server members Name Address Port Status Leader Protocol Build Datacenter Region nomad.global 127.0.0.1 4648 alive true 2 0.7.0 dc1 global ``` The output shows our own agent, the address it is running on, its health state, some version information, and the datacenter and region. Additional metadata can be viewed by providing the `-detailed` flag. ## Stopping the Agent You can use `Ctrl-C` (the interrupt signal) to halt the agent. By default, all signals will cause the agent to forcefully shutdown. The agent [can be configured](/docs/configuration#leave_on_terminate) to gracefully leave on either the interrupt or terminate signals. After interrupting the agent, you should see it leave the cluster and shut down: ``` ^C==> Caught signal: interrupt [DEBUG] http: Shutting down http server [INFO] agent: requesting shutdown [INFO] client: shutting down [INFO] nomad: shutting down server [WARN] serf: Shutdown without a Leave [INFO] agent: shutdown complete ``` By gracefully leaving, Nomad clients update their status to prevent further tasks from being scheduled and to start migrating any tasks that are already assigned. Nomad servers notify their peers they intend to leave. When a server leaves, replication to that server stops. If a server fails, replication continues to be attempted until the node recovers. Nomad will automatically try to reconnect to _failed_ nodes, allowing it to recover from certain network conditions, while _left_ nodes are no longer contacted. If an agent is operating as a server, [`leave_on_terminate`](/docs/configuration#leave_on_terminate) should only be set if the server will never rejoin the cluster again. The default value of `false` for `leave_on_terminate` and `leave_on_interrupt` work well for most scenarios. If Nomad servers are part of an auto scaling group where new servers are brought up to replace failed servers, using graceful leave avoids causing a potential availability outage affecting the [consensus protocol](/docs/internals/consensus). As of Nomad 0.8, Nomad includes Autopilot which automatically removes failed or dead servers. This allows the operator to skip setting `leave_on_terminate`. If a server does forcefully exit and will not be returning into service, the [`server force-leave` command](/docs/commands/server/force-leave) should be used to force the server from a _failed_ to a _left_ state. ## Next Steps If you shut down the development Nomad agent as instructed above, ensure that it is back up and running again and let's try to [run a job](jobs)!