private List<ID> gmsMemberListToIDList(
      List<ID> gmsMembers) {
    if (gmsMembers.size() == 0) {
      return Collections.emptyList();
    } else if (gmsMembers.size() == 1) {
      return Collections
          .singletonList(gmsMembers.get(0));
    } else {
      List<ID> idmMembers = new ArrayList<>(gmsMembers.size());
      for (ID member : gmsMembers) {
        idmMembers.add(member);
      }
      return idmMembers;
    }
  }
Joins the distributed system

@throws MemberStartupException - configuration error
geode-membership/src/main/java/org/apache/geode/distributed/internal/membership/gms/GMSMembership.java