Install Elasticsearch with .zip or .tar.gz

The .zip archive for Elasticsearch v6.8.23 can be downloaded and installed as follows:

wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-6.8.23.zip
wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-6.8.23.zip.sha512
shasum -a 512 -c elasticsearch-6.8.23.zip.sha512 
unzip elasticsearch-6.8.23.zip
cd elasticsearch-6.8.23/ 

Alternatively, you can download the following package, which contains only features that are available under the Apache 2.0 license: https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-oss-6.8.23.zip

The .tar.gz archive for Elasticsearch v6.8.23 can be downloaded and installed as follows:

wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-6.8.23.tar.gz
wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-6.8.23.tar.gz.sha512
shasum -a 512 -c elasticsearch-6.8.23.tar.gz.sha512 
tar -xzf elasticsearch-6.8.23.tar.gz
cd elasticsearch-6.8.23/ 

Alternatively, you can download the following package, which includes only Apache 2.0 licensed code: https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-oss-6.8.23.tar.gz

X-Pack will try to automatically create a number of indices within Elasticsearch. By default, Elasticsearch is configured to allow automatic index creation, and no additional steps are required. However, if you have disabled automatic index creation in Elasticsearch, you must configure action.auto_create_index in elasticsearch.yml to allow X-Pack to create the following indices:

action.auto_create_index: .monitoring*,.watches,.triggered_watches,.watcher-history*,.ml*

Elasticsearch can be started from the command line as follows:

./bin/elasticsearch

By default, Elasticsearch runs in the foreground, prints its logs to the standard output (stdout), and can be stopped by pressing Ctrl-C.

You can test that your Elasticsearch node is running by sending an HTTP request to port 9200 on localhost:

GET /

which should give you a response something like this:

{
  "name" : "Cp8oag6",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
  "cluster_uuid" : "AT69_T_DTp-1qgIJlatQqA",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "6.8.23",
    "build_flavor" : "default",
    "build_type" : "zip",
    "build_hash" : "f27399d",
    "build_date" : "2016-03-30T09:51:41.449Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "7.7.3",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

Log printing to stdout can be disabled using the -q or --quiet option on the command line.

To run Elasticsearch as a daemon, specify -d on the command line, and record the process ID in a file using the -p option:

./bin/elasticsearch -d -p pid

Log messages can be found in the $ES_HOME/logs/ directory.

To shut down Elasticsearch, kill the process ID recorded in the pid file:

pkill -F pid

Elasticsearch loads its configuration from the $ES_HOME/config/elasticsearch.yml file by default. The format of this config file is explained in Configuring Elasticsearch.

Any settings that can be specified in the config file can also be specified on the command line, using the -E syntax as follows:

./bin/elasticsearch -d -Ecluster.name=my_cluster -Enode.name=node_1

The .zip and .tar.gz packages are entirely self-contained. All files and directories are, by default, contained within $ES_HOME — the directory created when unpacking the archive.

This is very convenient because you don’t have to create any directories to start using Elasticsearch, and uninstalling Elasticsearch is as easy as removing the $ES_HOME directory. However, it is advisable to change the default locations of the config directory, the data directory, and the logs directory so that you do not delete important data later on.