12.5.4.2. Procedure – Testing or Pilot node

If there is an extra node in the cluster, for testing or piloting purpose, which is not planned to be used in the live keepalived configuration, then 2 solutions are suggested:

1. Do not upload Keepalived configuration and do not start Keepalived service on that specific node.

   This trivial solution needs the active attention of the firewall administrator, when uploading Keepalived configuration or managing the service.

2. Create and link a new cluster property with keepalived_router_id type.

   Set the value of the new cluster property to the same for the actively used nodes and to a different value for the testing nodes.

   In this case, the testing nodes will be in a different VRRP group and they will not ever get MASTER state in the cluster.