1. A computer-implemented method of deploying a membership of distributed compute nodes in a distributed computing system, comprising; selecting distributed compute nodes to be part of membership of distributed compute nodes to be deployed; creating a membership task identifying a membership creator distributed compute node as the distributed compute node that is creating the membership to be deployed, the membership task further comprising a membership target identifying at least one distributed compute node of the distributed computing system that is to become a member of the membership, the membership target not including the membership creator distributed compute node; repeatedly sending, over a computer network, a create membership message to each distributed compute node identified in the membership target, the create membership message comprising at least an identity of the membership task and an identification of the membership to be deployed; upon receiving a response from a distributed compute node in the membership target, deploying the membership when a response has been received from each of the distributed compute nodes identified in the membership target, and after a response has been received from each of the distributed compute nodes identified in the membership target and the membership has been deployed, storing the deployed membership task in a persistent memory; restarting, by the membership creator distributed compute node, the membership task and repeatedly resending duplicate create membership messages to at least one of the distributed compute nodes identified in the membership target if the membership creator distributed compute node fails before it has received responses from each of the distributed compute nodes identified in the membership target.