Document some command-line options for hand-over

Signed-off-by: Bryan Boreham <[email protected]>

Author: bboreham

docs/arguments.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # Cortex Arguments Explained
 
+Duration arguments should be specified with a unit like `5s` or `3h`. Valid time units are "ms", "s", "m", "h".
+
 ## Querier
 
 - `-querier.max-concurrent`
@@ -155,6 +157,14 @@ It also talks to a KVStore and has it's own copies of the same flags used by the
 
 ## Ingester
 
+- `-ingester.join-after`
+
+   How long to wait in PENDING state during the [hand-over process](ingester-handover.md). (default 0s)
+
+- `-ingester.ingester.max-transfer-retries`
+
+   How many times a LEAVING ingester tries to find a PENDING ingester during the [hand-over process](ingester-handover.md). Each attempt takes a second or so. (default 10)
+
 - `-ingester.normalise-tokens`
 
    Write out "normalised" tokens to the ring.  Normalised tokens consume less memory to encode and decode; as the ring is unmarshalled regularly, this significantly reduces memory usage of anything that watches the ring.

docs/ingester-handover.md

@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ Each ingester goes through different states in its lifecycle. When
 working normally, the state is `ACTIVE`.
 
 On start-up, an ingester first goes into state `PENDING`. After a
-short time, if nothing happens, it adds itself to the ring and goes
-into state ACTIVE.
+[short time](arguments.md#ingester), if nothing happens, it adds
+itself to the ring and goes into state ACTIVE.
 
 A running ingester is notified to shut down by Unix signal
 `SIGINT`. On receipt of this signal it goes into state `LEAVING` and
@@ -21,9 +21,10 @@ removes itself from the ring and exits and the joiner changes to
 `ACTIVE`, taking over ownership of the leaver's
 [ring tokens](architecture.md#hashing).
 
-If a leaving ingester does not find a pending ingester, it will flush
-all of its chunks to the backing database, then remove itself from the
-ring and exit. This may take tens of minutes to complete.
+If a leaving ingester does not find a pending ingester after [several
+attempts](arguments.md#ingester), it will flush all of its chunks to
+the backing database, then remove itself from the ring and exit. This
+may take tens of minutes to complete.
 
 During hand-over, neither the leaving nor joining ingesters will
 accept new samples. Distributors are aware of this, and "spill" the