SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 SP5 and 15

Remove Docker and previously installed podman packages (if previously installed).

sudo zypper remove -y docker docker-ce podman podman-remote

Update packages to the latest available versions

sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper update -y

Install Docker and other required packages:

Disable nscd, as it interferes with Elastic’s services:

sudo systemctl stop nscd
sudo systemctl disable nscd

If they don’t already exist, create the following OS groups:

 sudo groupadd elastic
 sudo groupadd docker

Add the user to these groups:

 sudo usermod -aG elastic,docker $USER

Format the partition:

sudo mkfs.xfs /dev/xvdg1

Create the /mnt/data/ directory as a mount point:

sudo install -o $USER -g elastic -d -m 700 /mnt/data

Add an entry to the /etc/fstab file for the new XFS volume. The default filesystem path used by Elastic Cloud Enterprise is /mnt/data.

/dev/xvdg1	/mnt/data	xfs	defaults,pquota,prjquota,x-systemd.automount  0 0

Regenerate the mount files:

sudo mount -a

Stop the Docker service:

sudo systemctl stop docker

Enable cgroup accounting for memory and swap space.

Configure kernel parameters

cat <<EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
# Required by Elasticsearch
vm.max_map_count=262144
# enable forwarding so the Docker networking works as expected
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
# Decrease the maximum number of TCP retransmissions to 5 as recommended for Elasticsearch TCP retransmission timeout.
# See https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/system-config-tcpretries.html
net.ipv4.tcp_retries2=5
# Make sure the host doesn't swap too early
vm.swappiness=1
EOF

Adjust the system limits.

Add the following configuration values to the /etc/security/limits.conf file. These values are derived from our experience with the Elastic Cloud hosted offering and should be used for Elastic Cloud Enterprise as well.

*                soft    nofile         1024000
*                hard    nofile         1024000
*                soft    memlock        unlimited
*                hard    memlock        unlimited
elastic          soft    nofile         1024000
elastic          hard    nofile         1024000
elastic          soft    memlock        unlimited
elastic          hard    memlock        unlimited
elastic          soft    nproc          unlimited
elastic          hard    nproc          unlimited
root             soft    nofile         1024000
root             hard    nofile         1024000
root             soft    memlock        unlimited

NOTE: This step is optional if the Docker registry doesn’t require authentication.

Authenticate the elastic user to pull images from the Docker registry you use, by creating the file /home/elastic/.docker/config.json. This file needs to be owned by the elastic user. If you are using a user name other than elastic, adjust the path accordingly.

Example: In case you use docker.elastic.co, the file content looks like as follows:

{
 "auths": {
   "docker.elastic.co": {
     "auth": "<auth-token>"
   }
 }
}

If you did not create the mount point earlier (if you did not set up XFS), create the /mnt/data/ directory as a mount point:

sudo install -o $USER -g elastic -d -m 700 /mnt/data

If you set up a new device with XFS earlier:

Create the /mnt/data/docker directory for the Docker service storage:

sudo install -o $USER -g elastic -d -m 700 /mnt/data/docker

Edit /etc/docker/daemon.json, and make sure that the following configuration values are present:

{
  "storage-driver": "overlay2",
  "bip":"172.17.42.1/16",
  "icc": false,
  "log-driver": "json-file",
  "log-opts": {
    "max-size": "500m",
    "max-file": "10"
  },
  "data-root": "/mnt/data/docker"
}

The user installing Elastic Cloud Enterprise must have a User ID (UID) and Group ID (GID) of 1000 or higher. Make sure that the GID matches the ID of the elastic` group created earlier (likely to be 1000). You can set this using the following command:

sudo usermod -g <elastic_group_gid> $USER

Apply the updated Docker daemon configuration:

Reload the Docker daemon configuration:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Restart the Docker service:

sudo systemctl restart docker

Enable Docker to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable docker

Recommended: Tune your network settings.

Create a 70-cloudenterprise.conf file in the /etc/sysctl.d/ file path that includes these network settings:

cat << SETTINGS | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/70-cloudenterprise.conf
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog=65536
net.core.somaxconn=32768
net.core.netdev_max_backlog=32768
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time=1800
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_established=7200
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_max=262140
SETTINGS

Reboot your system to ensure that all configuration changes take effect:

sudo reboot

If the Docker daemon is not already running, start it:

sudo systemctl start docker

After rebooting, verify that your Docker settings persist as expected:

sudo docker info | grep Root

If the command returns Docker Root Dir: /mnt/data/docker, then your changes were applied successfully and persist as expected.

If the command returns Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker, then you need to troubleshoot the previous configuration steps until the Docker settings are applied successfully before continuing with the installation process. For more information, check Custom Docker daemon options in the Docker documentation.