[lclarkmichalek]

What would happen if nodes were to be added to each side of a network partition (unknown to the other side), so that each side believed they had a majority? Or is the "writing" side of the partition determined at partition time, and not changed until they are restored?

[sbhat7]

To add a new node to the network, it

* needs to have the same data as the other nodes

* needs a round of Raft to notify its presence to other nodes

So you can only add new nodes (automatically) when you have a 'live' system.

majority = ceil((2n + 1)/2) : so by getting the number of available nodes in the partition, nodes can figure out if they are in the majority or minority cluster.

See section 6 in the paper for details of its implementation.