Use a vanilla server and copy the infinispan.xml to server/conf duplicate the server directory to node [1...3] start the servers bin/server.sh -o 0 -n node1 -s node1 bin/server.sh -o 100 -n node2 -s node2 bin/server.sh -o 200 -n node3 -s node3 add one value (with RESt or other client) curl -X PUT -H 'Content-Type: application/x-protostream' --data "MyValue" "http://127.0.0.1:11222/rest/v2/caches/test/one" run REST curl "http://127.0.0.1:11422/rest/v2/caches/test?action=distribution"| jq use JConsole to inspect MBean cache->"test" >DistributionManager >locateKey As result you (often) see a different distribution for REST or MBEAN. Connecting the different instances REST shows the same and MBEAN shows the same (but different than REST)