- Elasticsearch Guide: other versions:
- What is Elasticsearch?
- What’s new in 8.2
- Quick start
- Set up Elasticsearch
- Installing Elasticsearch
- Configuring Elasticsearch
- Important Elasticsearch configuration
- Secure settings
- Auditing settings
- Circuit breaker settings
- Cluster-level shard allocation and routing settings
- Cross-cluster replication settings
- Discovery and cluster formation settings
- Field data cache settings
- Index lifecycle management settings
- Index management settings
- Index recovery settings
- Indexing buffer settings
- License settings
- Local gateway settings
- Logging
- Machine learning settings
- Monitoring settings
- Node
- Networking
- Node query cache settings
- Search settings
- Security settings
- Shard request cache settings
- Snapshot and restore settings
- Transforms settings
- Thread pools
- Watcher settings
- Advanced configuration
- Important system configuration
- Bootstrap Checks
- Heap size check
- File descriptor check
- Memory lock check
- Maximum number of threads check
- Max file size check
- Maximum size virtual memory check
- Maximum map count check
- Client JVM check
- Use serial collector check
- System call filter check
- OnError and OnOutOfMemoryError checks
- Early-access check
- G1GC check
- All permission check
- Discovery configuration check
- Bootstrap Checks for X-Pack
- Starting Elasticsearch
- Stopping Elasticsearch
- Discovery and cluster formation
- Add and remove nodes in your cluster
- Full-cluster restart and rolling restart
- Remote clusters
- Plugins
- Upgrade Elasticsearch
- Index modules
- Mapping
- Text analysis
- Overview
- Concepts
- Configure text analysis
- Built-in analyzer reference
- Tokenizer reference
- Token filter reference
- Apostrophe
- ASCII folding
- CJK bigram
- CJK width
- Classic
- Common grams
- Conditional
- Decimal digit
- Delimited payload
- Dictionary decompounder
- Edge n-gram
- Elision
- Fingerprint
- Flatten graph
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- Hyphenation decompounder
- Keep types
- Keep words
- Keyword marker
- Keyword repeat
- KStem
- Length
- Limit token count
- Lowercase
- MinHash
- Multiplexer
- N-gram
- Normalization
- Pattern capture
- Pattern replace
- Phonetic
- Porter stem
- Predicate script
- Remove duplicates
- Reverse
- Shingle
- Snowball
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- Stemmer override
- Stop
- Synonym
- Synonym graph
- Trim
- Truncate
- Unique
- Uppercase
- Word delimiter
- Word delimiter graph
- Character filters reference
- Normalizers
- Index templates
- Data streams
- Ingest pipelines
- Example: Parse logs
- Enrich your data
- Processor reference
- Append
- Bytes
- Circle
- Community ID
- Convert
- CSV
- Date
- Date index name
- Dissect
- Dot expander
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- Set
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- Search your data
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- kNN search
- Query DSL
- Aggregations
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- Adjacency matrix
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- Filters
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- Histogram
- IP prefix
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- Missing
- Multi Terms
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- Parent
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- Terms
- Variable width histogram
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- Average bucket
- Bucket script
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- Bucket correlation
- Bucket selector
- Bucket sort
- Change point
- Cumulative cardinality
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- Extended stats bucket
- Inference bucket
- Max bucket
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- Moving function
- Moving percentiles
- Normalize
- Percentiles bucket
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- Stats bucket
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- Bucket aggregations
- EQL
- SQL
- Overview
- Getting Started with SQL
- Conventions and Terminology
- Security
- SQL REST API
- SQL Translate API
- SQL CLI
- SQL JDBC
- SQL ODBC
- SQL Client Applications
- SQL Language
- Functions and Operators
- Comparison Operators
- Logical Operators
- Math Operators
- Cast Operators
- LIKE and RLIKE Operators
- Aggregate Functions
- Grouping Functions
- Date/Time and Interval Functions and Operators
- Full-Text Search Functions
- Mathematical Functions
- String Functions
- Type Conversion Functions
- Geo Functions
- Conditional Functions And Expressions
- System Functions
- Reserved keywords
- SQL Limitations
- Scripting
- Data management
- ILM: Manage the index lifecycle
- Tutorial: Customize built-in policies
- Tutorial: Automate rollover
- Index management in Kibana
- Overview
- Concepts
- Index lifecycle actions
- Configure a lifecycle policy
- Migrate index allocation filters to node roles
- Troubleshooting index lifecycle management errors
- Start and stop index lifecycle management
- Manage existing indices
- Skip rollover
- Restore a managed data stream or index
- Data tiers
- Autoscaling
- Monitor a cluster
- Roll up or transform your data
- Set up a cluster for high availability
- Snapshot and restore
- Secure the Elastic Stack
- Elasticsearch security principles
- Start the Elastic Stack with security enabled automatically
- Manually configure security
- Updating node security certificates
- User authentication
- Built-in users
- Service accounts
- Internal users
- Token-based authentication services
- User profiles
- Realms
- Realm chains
- Security domains
- Active Directory user authentication
- File-based user authentication
- LDAP user authentication
- Native user authentication
- OpenID Connect authentication
- PKI user authentication
- SAML authentication
- Kerberos authentication
- JWT authentication
- Integrating with other authentication systems
- Enabling anonymous access
- Controlling the user cache
- Configuring SAML single-sign-on on the Elastic Stack
- Configuring single sign-on to the Elastic Stack using OpenID Connect
- User authorization
- Built-in roles
- Defining roles
- Security privileges
- Document level security
- Field level security
- Granting privileges for data streams and aliases
- Mapping users and groups to roles
- Setting up field and document level security
- Submitting requests on behalf of other users
- Configuring authorization delegation
- Customizing roles and authorization
- Enable audit logging
- Restricting connections with IP filtering
- Securing clients and integrations
- Operator privileges
- Troubleshooting
- Some settings are not returned via the nodes settings API
- Authorization exceptions
- Users command fails due to extra arguments
- Users are frequently locked out of Active Directory
- Certificate verification fails for curl on Mac
- SSLHandshakeException causes connections to fail
- Common SSL/TLS exceptions
- Common Kerberos exceptions
- Common SAML issues
- Internal Server Error in Kibana
- Setup-passwords command fails due to connection failure
- Failures due to relocation of the configuration files
- Limitations
- Watcher
- Command line tools
- elasticsearch-certgen
- elasticsearch-certutil
- elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token
- elasticsearch-croneval
- elasticsearch-keystore
- elasticsearch-node
- elasticsearch-reconfigure-node
- elasticsearch-reset-password
- elasticsearch-saml-metadata
- elasticsearch-service-tokens
- elasticsearch-setup-passwords
- elasticsearch-shard
- elasticsearch-syskeygen
- elasticsearch-users
- How to
- REST APIs
- API conventions
- Common options
- REST API compatibility
- Autoscaling APIs
- Compact and aligned text (CAT) APIs
- cat aliases
- cat allocation
- cat anomaly detectors
- cat count
- cat data frame analytics
- cat datafeeds
- cat fielddata
- cat health
- cat indices
- cat master
- cat nodeattrs
- cat nodes
- cat pending tasks
- cat plugins
- cat recovery
- cat repositories
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- cat thread pool
- cat trained model
- cat transforms
- Cluster APIs
- Cluster allocation explain
- Cluster get settings
- Cluster health
- Cluster reroute
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- Cluster stats
- Cluster update settings
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- Pending cluster tasks
- Remote cluster info
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- Create or update desired nodes
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- Cross-cluster replication APIs
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- Index APIs
- Alias exists
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- Exists
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- List dangling indices
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- Index lifecycle management APIs
- Create or update lifecycle policy
- Get policy
- Delete policy
- Move to step
- Remove policy
- Retry policy
- Get index lifecycle management status
- Explain lifecycle
- Start index lifecycle management
- Stop index lifecycle management
- Migrate indices, ILM policies, and legacy, composable and component templates to data tiers routing
- Ingest APIs
- Info API
- Licensing APIs
- Logstash APIs
- Machine learning APIs
- Machine learning anomaly detection APIs
- Add events to calendar
- Add jobs to calendar
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- Create filters
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- Delete expired data
- Estimate model memory
- Flush jobs
- Forecast jobs
- Get buckets
- Get calendars
- Get categories
- Get datafeeds
- Get datafeed statistics
- Get influencers
- Get jobs
- Get job statistics
- Get model snapshots
- Get model snapshot upgrade statistics
- Get overall buckets
- Get scheduled events
- Get filters
- Get records
- Open jobs
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- Preview datafeeds
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- Start datafeeds
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- Update filters
- Update jobs
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- Upgrade model snapshots
- Machine learning data frame analytics APIs
- Create data frame analytics jobs
- Delete data frame analytics jobs
- Evaluate data frame analytics
- Explain data frame analytics
- Get data frame analytics jobs
- Get data frame analytics jobs stats
- Preview data frame analytics
- Start data frame analytics jobs
- Stop data frame analytics jobs
- Update data frame analytics jobs
- Machine learning trained model APIs
- Create or update trained model aliases
- Create part of a trained model
- Create trained models
- Create trained model vocabulary
- Delete trained model aliases
- Delete trained models
- Get trained models
- Get trained models stats
- Infer trained model deployment
- Start trained model deployment
- Stop trained model deployment
- Migration APIs
- Node lifecycle APIs
- Reload search analyzers API
- Repositories metering APIs
- Rollup APIs
- Script APIs
- Search APIs
- Searchable snapshots APIs
- Security APIs
- Authenticate
- Change passwords
- Clear cache
- Clear roles cache
- Clear privileges cache
- Clear API key cache
- Clear service account token caches
- Create API keys
- Create or update application privileges
- Create or update role mappings
- Create or update roles
- Create or update users
- Create service account tokens
- Delegate PKI authentication
- Delete application privileges
- Delete role mappings
- Delete roles
- Delete service account token
- Delete users
- Disable users
- Enable users
- Enroll Kibana
- Enroll node
- Get API key information
- Get application privileges
- Get builtin privileges
- Get role mappings
- Get roles
- Get service accounts
- Get service account credentials
- Get token
- Get user privileges
- Get users
- Grant API keys
- Has privileges
- Invalidate API key
- Invalidate token
- OpenID Connect prepare authentication
- OpenID Connect authenticate
- OpenID Connect logout
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- SAML prepare authentication
- SAML authenticate
- SAML logout
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- SAML complete logout
- SAML service provider metadata
- SSL certificate
- Activate user profile
- Disable user profile
- Enable user profile
- Get user profile
- Suggest user profile
- Update user profile data
- Snapshot and restore APIs
- Snapshot lifecycle management APIs
- SQL APIs
- Transform APIs
- Usage API
- Watcher APIs
- Definitions
- Migration guide
- Release notes
- Elasticsearch version 8.2.3
- Elasticsearch version 8.2.2
- Elasticsearch version 8.2.1
- Elasticsearch version 8.2.0
- Elasticsearch version 8.1.3
- Elasticsearch version 8.1.2
- Elasticsearch version 8.1.1
- Elasticsearch version 8.1.0
- Elasticsearch version 8.0.1
- Elasticsearch version 8.0.0
- Elasticsearch version 8.0.0-rc2
- Elasticsearch version 8.0.0-rc1
- Elasticsearch version 8.0.0-beta1
- Elasticsearch version 8.0.0-alpha2
- Elasticsearch version 8.0.0-alpha1
- Dependencies and versions
Install Elasticsearch with Docker
editInstall Elasticsearch with Docker
editElasticsearch is also available as Docker images. A list of all published Docker images and tags is available at www.docker.elastic.co. The source files are in Github.
This package contains both free and subscription features. Start a 30-day trial to try out all of the features.
Starting in Elasticsearch 8.0, security is enabled by default. With security enabled, Elastic Stack security features require TLS encryption for the transport networking layer, or your cluster will fail to start.
Install Docker Desktop or Docker Engine
editInstall the appropriate Docker application for your operating system.
Make sure that Docker is allotted at least 4GiB of memory. In Docker Desktop, you configure resource usage on the Advanced tab in Preference (macOS) or Settings (Windows).
Pull the Elasticsearch Docker image
editObtaining Elasticsearch for Docker is as simple as issuing a docker pull
command
against the Elastic Docker registry.
docker pull docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3
Now that you have the Elasticsearch Docker image, you can start a single-node or multi-node cluster.
Start a single-node cluster with Docker
editIf you’re starting a single-node Elasticsearch cluster in a Docker container, security will be automatically enabled and configured for you. When you start Elasticsearch for the first time, the following security configuration occurs automatically:
- Certificates and keys are generated for the transport and HTTP layers.
-
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) configuration settings are written to
elasticsearch.yml
. -
A password is generated for the
elastic
user. - An enrollment token is generated for Kibana.
You can then start Kibana and enter the enrollment
token, which is valid for 30 minutes. This token automatically applies the
security settings from your Elasticsearch cluster, authenticates to Elasticsearch with the
kibana_system
user, and writes the security configuration to kibana.yml
.
The following commands start a single-node Elasticsearch cluster for development or testing.
-
Create a new docker network for Elasticsearch and Kibana
docker network create elastic
-
Start Elasticsearch in Docker. A password is generated for the
elastic
user and output to the terminal, plus an enrollment token for enrolling Kibana.docker run --name es01 --net elastic -p 9200:9200 -p 9300:9300 -it docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3
You might need to scroll back a bit in the terminal to view the password and enrollment token.
-
Copy the generated password and enrollment token and save them in a secure location. These values are shown only when you start Elasticsearch for the first time.
If you need to reset the password for the
elastic
user or other built-in users, run theelasticsearch-reset-password
tool. This tool is available in the Elasticsearch/bin
directory of the Docker container. For example:docker exec -it es01 /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-reset-password
-
Copy the
http_ca.crt
security certificate from your Docker container to your local machine.docker cp es01:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs/http_ca.crt .
-
Open a new terminal and verify that you can connect to your Elasticsearch cluster by making an authenticated call, using the
http_ca.crt
file that you copied from your Docker container. Enter the password for theelastic
user when prompted.curl --cacert http_ca.crt -u elastic https://localhost:9200
Enroll additional nodes
editWhen you start Elasticsearch for the first time, the installation process configures a single-node cluster by default. This process also generates an enrollment token and prints it to your terminal. If you want a node to join an existing cluster, start the new node with the generated enrollment token.
- In the terminal where you started your first node, copy the generated enrollment token for adding new Elasticsearch nodes.
-
On your new node, start Elasticsearch and include the generated enrollment token.
docker run -e ENROLLMENT_TOKEN="<token>" --name es02 --net elastic -it docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3
Elasticsearch is now configured to join the existing cluster.
Setting JVM heap size
editIf you experience issues where the container where your first node is running
exits when your second node starts, explicitly set values for the JVM heap size.
To manually configure the heap size, include the
ES_JAVA_OPTS
variable and set values for -Xms
and -Xmx
when starting each
node. For example, the following command starts node es02
and sets the
minimum and maximum JVM heap size to 1 GB:
docker run -e ES_JAVA_OPTS="-Xms1g -Xmx1g" -e ENROLLMENT_TOKEN="<token>" --name es02 -p 9201:9200 --net elastic -it docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3
Next steps
editYou now have a test Elasticsearch environment set up. Before you start serious development or go into production with Elasticsearch, review the requirements and recommendations to apply when running Elasticsearch in Docker in production.
Security certificates and keys
editWhen you install Elasticsearch, the following certificates and keys are generated in the Elasticsearch configuration directory, which are used to connect a Kibana instance to your secured Elasticsearch cluster and to encrypt internode communication. The files are listed here for reference.
-
http_ca.crt
- The CA certificate that is used to sign the certificates for the HTTP layer of this Elasticsearch cluster.
-
http.p12
- Keystore that contains the key and certificate for the HTTP layer for this node.
-
transport.p12
- Keystore that contains the key and certificate for the transport layer for all the nodes in your cluster.
http.p12
and transport.p12
are password-protected PKCS#12 keystores. Elasticsearch
stores the passwords for these keystores as secure
settings. To retrieve the passwords so that you can inspect or change the
keystore contents, use the
bin/elasticsearch-keystore
tool.
Use the following command to retrieve the password for http.p12
:
bin/elasticsearch-keystore show xpack.security.http.ssl.keystore.secure_password
Use the following command to retrieve the password for transport.p12
:
bin/elasticsearch-keystore show xpack.security.transport.ssl.keystore.secure_password
Start a multi-node cluster with Docker Compose
editTo get a multi-node Elasticsearch cluster and Kibana up and running in Docker with security enabled, you can use Docker Compose.
This configuration provides a simple method of starting a secured cluster that you can use for development before building a distributed deployment with multiple hosts.
Prerequisites
editInstall the appropriate Docker application for your operating system.
If you’re running on Linux, install Docker Compose.
Make sure that Docker is allotted at least 4GB of memory. In Docker Desktop, you configure resource usage on the Advanced tab in Preferences (macOS) or Settings (Windows).
Prepare the environment
editCreate the following configuration files in a new, empty directory. These files are also available from the elasticsearch repository on GitHub.
.env
editThe .env
file sets environment variables that are used when you run the
docker-compose.yml
configuration file. Ensure that you specify a strong
password for the elastic
and kibana_system
users with the
ELASTIC_PASSWORD
and KIBANA_PASSWORD
variables. These variable are
referenced by the docker-compose.yml
file.
# Password for the 'elastic' user (at least 6 characters) ELASTIC_PASSWORD= # Password for the 'kibana_system' user (at least 6 characters) KIBANA_PASSWORD= # Version of Elastic products STACK_VERSION=8.2.3 # Set the cluster name CLUSTER_NAME=docker-cluster # Set to 'basic' or 'trial' to automatically start the 30-day trial LICENSE=basic #LICENSE=trial # Port to expose Elasticsearch HTTP API to the host ES_PORT=9200 #ES_PORT=127.0.0.1:9200 # Port to expose Kibana to the host KIBANA_PORT=5601 #KIBANA_PORT=80 # Increase or decrease based on the available host memory (in bytes) MEM_LIMIT=1073741824 # Project namespace (defaults to the current folder name if not set) #COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=myproject
docker-compose.yml
editThis docker-compose.yml
file creates a three-node secure Elasticsearch cluster with authentication and network encryption enabled, and a Kibana instance securely connected to it.
version: "2.2" services: setup: image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} volumes: - certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs user: "0" command: > bash -c ' if [ x${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} == x ]; then echo "Set the ELASTIC_PASSWORD environment variable in the .env file"; exit 1; elif [ x${KIBANA_PASSWORD} == x ]; then echo "Set the KIBANA_PASSWORD environment variable in the .env file"; exit 1; fi; if [ ! -f config/certs/ca.zip ]; then echo "Creating CA"; bin/elasticsearch-certutil ca --silent --pem -out config/certs/ca.zip; unzip config/certs/ca.zip -d config/certs; fi; if [ ! -f config/certs/certs.zip ]; then echo "Creating certs"; echo -ne \ "instances:\n"\ " - name: es01\n"\ " dns:\n"\ " - es01\n"\ " - localhost\n"\ " ip:\n"\ " - 127.0.0.1\n"\ " - name: es02\n"\ " dns:\n"\ " - es02\n"\ " - localhost\n"\ " ip:\n"\ " - 127.0.0.1\n"\ " - name: es03\n"\ " dns:\n"\ " - es03\n"\ " - localhost\n"\ " ip:\n"\ " - 127.0.0.1\n"\ > config/certs/instances.yml; bin/elasticsearch-certutil cert --silent --pem -out config/certs/certs.zip --in config/certs/instances.yml --ca-cert config/certs/ca/ca.crt --ca-key config/certs/ca/ca.key; unzip config/certs/certs.zip -d config/certs; fi; echo "Setting file permissions" chown -R root:root config/certs; find . -type d -exec chmod 750 \{\} \;; find . -type f -exec chmod 640 \{\} \;; echo "Waiting for Elasticsearch availability"; until curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://es01:9200 | grep -q "missing authentication credentials"; do sleep 30; done; echo "Setting kibana_system password"; until curl -s -X POST --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt -u elastic:${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://es01:9200/_security/user/kibana_system/_password -d "{\"password\":\"${KIBANA_PASSWORD}\"}" | grep -q "^{}"; do sleep 10; done; echo "All done!"; ' healthcheck: test: ["CMD-SHELL", "[ -f config/certs/es01/es01.crt ]"] interval: 1s timeout: 5s retries: 120 es01: depends_on: setup: condition: service_healthy image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} volumes: - certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs - esdata01:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data ports: - ${ES_PORT}:9200 environment: - node.name=es01 - cluster.name=${CLUSTER_NAME} - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03 - discovery.seed_hosts=es02,es03 - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} - bootstrap.memory_lock=true - xpack.security.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=certs/es01/es01.key - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=certs/es01/es01.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=certs/es01/es01.key - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=certs/es01/es01.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.license.self_generated.type=${LICENSE} mem_limit: ${MEM_LIMIT} ulimits: memlock: soft: -1 hard: -1 healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://localhost:9200 | grep -q 'missing authentication credentials'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 es02: depends_on: - es01 image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} volumes: - certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs - esdata02:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data environment: - node.name=es02 - cluster.name=${CLUSTER_NAME} - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03 - discovery.seed_hosts=es01,es03 - bootstrap.memory_lock=true - xpack.security.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=certs/es02/es02.key - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=certs/es02/es02.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=certs/es02/es02.key - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=certs/es02/es02.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.license.self_generated.type=${LICENSE} mem_limit: ${MEM_LIMIT} ulimits: memlock: soft: -1 hard: -1 healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://localhost:9200 | grep -q 'missing authentication credentials'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 es03: depends_on: - es02 image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} volumes: - certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs - esdata03:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data environment: - node.name=es03 - cluster.name=${CLUSTER_NAME} - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03 - discovery.seed_hosts=es01,es02 - bootstrap.memory_lock=true - xpack.security.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=certs/es03/es03.key - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=certs/es03/es03.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=certs/es03/es03.key - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=certs/es03/es03.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.license.self_generated.type=${LICENSE} mem_limit: ${MEM_LIMIT} ulimits: memlock: soft: -1 hard: -1 healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://localhost:9200 | grep -q 'missing authentication credentials'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 kibana: depends_on: es01: condition: service_healthy es02: condition: service_healthy es03: condition: service_healthy image: docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:${STACK_VERSION} volumes: - certs:/usr/share/kibana/config/certs - kibanadata:/usr/share/kibana/data ports: - ${KIBANA_PORT}:5601 environment: - SERVERNAME=kibana - ELASTICSEARCH_HOSTS=https://es01:9200 - ELASTICSEARCH_USERNAME=kibana_system - ELASTICSEARCH_PASSWORD=${KIBANA_PASSWORD} - ELASTICSEARCH_SSL_CERTIFICATEAUTHORITIES=config/certs/ca/ca.crt mem_limit: ${MEM_LIMIT} healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s -I http://localhost:5601 | grep -q 'HTTP/1.1 302 Found'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 volumes: certs: driver: local esdata01: driver: local esdata02: driver: local esdata03: driver: local kibanadata: driver: local
Start your cluster with security enabled and configured
edit-
Modify the
.env
file and enter strong password values for both theELASTIC_PASSWORD
andKIBANA_PASSWORD
variables.You must use the
ELASTIC_PASSWORD
value for further interactions with the cluster. TheKIBANA_PASSWORD
value is only used internally when configuring Kibana. -
Create and start the three-node Elasticsearch cluster and Kibana instance:
docker-compose up -d
- When the deployment has started, open a browser and navigate to http://localhost:5601 to access Kibana, where you can load sample data and interact with your cluster.
Stop and remove the deployment
editTo stop the cluster, run docker-compose down
. The data in the Docker volumes
is preserved and loaded when you restart the cluster with docker-compose up
.
docker-compose down
To delete the network, containers, and volumes when you stop the cluster,
specify the -v
option:
docker-compose down -v
Next steps
editYou now have a test Elasticsearch environment set up. Before you start serious development or go into production with Elasticsearch, review the requirements and recommendations to apply when running Elasticsearch in Docker in production.
Using the Docker images in production
editThe following requirements and recommendations apply when running Elasticsearch in Docker in production.
Set vm.max_map_count
to at least 262144
editThe vm.max_map_count
kernel setting must be set to at least 262144
for production use.
How you set vm.max_map_count
depends on your platform.
Linux
editTo view the current value for the vm.max_map_count
setting, run:
grep vm.max_map_count /etc/sysctl.conf vm.max_map_count=262144
To apply the setting on a live system, run:
sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
To permanently change the value for the vm.max_map_count
setting, update the
value in /etc/sysctl.conf
.
macOS with Docker for Mac
editThe vm.max_map_count
setting must be set within the xhyve virtual machine:
-
From the command line, run:
screen ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/vms/0/tty
-
Press enter and use
sysctl
to configurevm.max_map_count
:sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
-
To exit the
screen
session, typeCtrl a d
.
Windows and macOS with Docker Desktop
editThe vm.max_map_count
setting must be set via docker-machine:
docker-machine ssh sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
Windows with Docker Desktop WSL 2 backend
editThe vm.max_map_count
setting must be set in the docker-desktop container:
wsl -d docker-desktop sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
Configuration files must be readable by the elasticsearch
user
editBy default, Elasticsearch runs inside the container as user elasticsearch
using
uid:gid 1000:0
.
One exception is Openshift,
which runs containers using an arbitrarily assigned user ID.
Openshift presents persistent volumes with the gid set to 0
, which works without any adjustments.
If you are bind-mounting a local directory or file, it must be readable by the elasticsearch
user.
In addition, this user must have write access to the config, data and log dirs
(Elasticsearch needs write access to the config
directory so that it can generate a keystore).
A good strategy is to grant group access to gid 0
for the local directory.
For example, to prepare a local directory for storing data through a bind-mount:
mkdir esdatadir chmod g+rwx esdatadir chgrp 0 esdatadir
You can also run an Elasticsearch container using both a custom UID and GID. You must ensure that file permissions will not prevent Elasticsearch from executing. You can use one of two options:
-
Bind-mount the
config
,data
andlogs
directories. If you intend to install plugins and prefer not to create a custom Docker image, you must also bind-mount theplugins
directory. -
Pass the
--group-add 0
command line option todocker run
. This ensures that the user under which Elasticsearch is running is also a member of theroot
(GID 0) group inside the container.
Increase ulimits for nofile and nproc
editIncreased ulimits for nofile and nproc must be available for the Elasticsearch containers. Verify the init system for the Docker daemon sets them to acceptable values.
To check the Docker daemon defaults for ulimits, run:
docker run --rm docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:{version} /bin/bash -c 'ulimit -Hn && ulimit -Sn && ulimit -Hu && ulimit -Su'
If needed, adjust them in the Daemon or override them per container.
For example, when using docker run
, set:
--ulimit nofile=65535:65535
Disable swapping
editSwapping needs to be disabled for performance and node stability. For information about ways to do this, see Disable swapping.
If you opt for the bootstrap.memory_lock: true
approach,
you also need to define the memlock: true
ulimit in the
Docker Daemon,
or explicitly set for the container as shown in the sample compose file.
When using docker run
, you can specify:
-e "bootstrap.memory_lock=true" --ulimit memlock=-1:-1
Randomize published ports
editThe image exposes
TCP ports 9200 and 9300. For production clusters, randomizing the
published ports with --publish-all
is recommended,
unless you are pinning one container per host.
Manually set the heap size
editBy default, Elasticsearch automatically sizes JVM heap based on a nodes’s roles and the total memory available to the node’s container. We recommend this default sizing for most production environments. If needed, you can override default sizing by manually setting JVM heap size.
To manually set the heap size in production, bind mount a JVM
options file under /usr/share/elasticsearch/config/jvm.options.d
that
includes your desired heap size settings.
For testing, you can also manually set the heap size using the ES_JAVA_OPTS
environment variable. For example, to use 16GB, specify -e
ES_JAVA_OPTS="-Xms16g -Xmx16g"
with docker run
. The ES_JAVA_OPTS
variable
overrides all other JVM options. We do not recommend using ES_JAVA_OPTS
in
production. The docker-compose.yml
file above sets the heap size to 512MB.
Pin deployments to a specific image version
editPin your deployments to a specific version of the Elasticsearch Docker image. For
example docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3
.
Always bind data volumes
editYou should use a volume bound on /usr/share/elasticsearch/data
for the following reasons:
- The data of your Elasticsearch node won’t be lost if the container is killed
- Elasticsearch is I/O sensitive and the Docker storage driver is not ideal for fast I/O
- It allows the use of advanced Docker volume plugins
Avoid using loop-lvm
mode
editIf you are using the devicemapper storage driver, do not use the default loop-lvm
mode.
Configure docker-engine to use
direct-lvm.
Centralize your logs
editConsider centralizing your logs by using a different logging driver. Also note that the default json-file logging driver is not ideally suited for production use.
Configuring Elasticsearch with Docker
editWhen you run in Docker, the Elasticsearch configuration files are loaded from
/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/
.
To use custom configuration files, you bind-mount the files over the configuration files in the image.
You can set individual Elasticsearch configuration parameters using Docker environment variables. The sample compose file and the single-node example use this method. You can use the setting name directly as the environment variable name. If you cannot do this, for example because your orchestration platform forbids periods in environment variable names, then you can use an alternative style by converting the setting name as follows.
- Change the setting name to uppercase
-
Prefix it with
ES_SETTING_
-
Escape any underscores (
_
) by duplicating them -
Convert all periods (
.
) to underscores (_
)
For example, -e bootstrap.memory_lock=true
becomes
-e ES_SETTING_BOOTSTRAP_MEMORY__LOCK=true
.
You can use the contents of a file to set the value of the
ELASTIC_PASSWORD
or KEYSTORE_PASSWORD
environment variables, by
suffixing the environment variable name with _FILE
. This is useful for
passing secrets such as passwords to Elasticsearch without specifying them directly.
For example, to set the Elasticsearch bootstrap password from a file, you can bind mount the
file and set the ELASTIC_PASSWORD_FILE
environment variable to the mount location.
If you mount the password file to /run/secrets/bootstrapPassword.txt
, specify:
-e ELASTIC_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/bootstrapPassword.txt
You can override the default command for the image to pass Elasticsearch configuration parameters as command line options. For example:
docker run <various parameters> bin/elasticsearch -Ecluster.name=mynewclustername
While bind-mounting your configuration files is usually the preferred method in production, you can also create a custom Docker image that contains your configuration.
Mounting Elasticsearch configuration files
editCreate custom config files and bind-mount them over the corresponding files in the Docker image.
For example, to bind-mount custom_elasticsearch.yml
with docker run
, specify:
-v full_path_to/custom_elasticsearch.yml:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.yml
If you bind-mount a custom elasticsearch.yml
file, ensure it includes the
network.host: 0.0.0.0
setting. This setting ensures the node is reachable for
HTTP and transport traffic, provided its ports are exposed. The Docker image’s
built-in elasticsearch.yml
file includes this setting by default.
The container runs Elasticsearch as user elasticsearch
using
uid:gid 1000:0
. Bind mounted host directories and files must be accessible by this user,
and the data and log directories must be writable by this user.
Create an encrypted Elasticsearch keystore
editBy default, Elasticsearch will auto-generate a keystore file for secure settings. This file is obfuscated but not encrypted.
To encrypt your secure settings with a password and have them persist outside
the container, use a docker run
command to manually create the keystore
instead. The command must:
-
Bind-mount the
config
directory. The command will create anelasticsearch.keystore
file in this directory. To avoid errors, do not directly bind-mount theelasticsearch.keystore
file. -
Use the
elasticsearch-keystore
tool with thecreate -p
option. You’ll be prompted to enter a password for the keystore.
For example:
docker run -it --rm \ -v full_path_to/config:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config \ docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3 \ bin/elasticsearch-keystore create -p
You can also use a docker run
command to add or update secure settings in the
keystore. You’ll be prompted to enter the setting values. If the keystore is
encrypted, you’ll also be prompted to enter the keystore password.
docker run -it --rm \ -v full_path_to/config:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config \ docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3 \ bin/elasticsearch-keystore \ add my.secure.setting \ my.other.secure.setting
If you’ve already created the keystore and don’t need to update it, you can
bind-mount the elasticsearch.keystore
file directly. You can use the
KEYSTORE_PASSWORD
environment variable to provide the keystore password to the
container at startup. For example, a docker run
command might have the
following options:
-v full_path_to/config/elasticsearch.keystore:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.keystore -e KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=mypassword
Using custom Docker images
editIn some environments, it might make more sense to prepare a custom image that contains
your configuration. A Dockerfile
to achieve this might be as simple as:
FROM docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.2.3 COPY --chown=elasticsearch:elasticsearch elasticsearch.yml /usr/share/elasticsearch/config/
You could then build and run the image with:
docker build --tag=elasticsearch-custom . docker run -ti -v /usr/share/elasticsearch/data elasticsearch-custom
Some plugins require additional security permissions. You must explicitly accept them either by:
-
Attaching a
tty
when you run the Docker image and allowing the permissions when prompted. -
Inspecting the security permissions and accepting them (if appropriate) by adding the
--batch
flag to the plugin install command.
See Plugin management for more information.
Troubleshoot Docker errors for Elasticsearch
editHere’s how to resolve common errors when running Elasticsearch with Docker.
elasticsearch.keystore is a directory
editException in thread "main" org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.BootstrapException: java.io.IOException: Is a directory: SimpleFSIndexInput(path="/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.keystore") Likely root cause: java.io.IOException: Is a directory
A keystore-related docker run
command attempted
to directly bind-mount an elasticsearch.keystore
file that doesn’t exist. If
you use the -v
or --volume
flag to mount a file that doesn’t exist, Docker
instead creates a directory with the same name.
To resolve this error:
-
Delete the
elasticsearch.keystore
directory in theconfig
directory. -
Update the
-v
or--volume
flag to point to theconfig
directory path rather than the keystore file’s path. For an example, see Create an encrypted Elasticsearch keystore. - Retry the command.
elasticsearch.keystore: Device or resource busy
editException in thread "main" java.nio.file.FileSystemException: /usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.keystore.tmp -> /usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.keystore: Device or resource busy
A docker run
command attempted to update the
keystore while directly bind-mounting the elasticsearch.keystore
file. To
update the keystore, the container requires access to other files in the
config
directory, such as keystore.tmp
.
To resolve this error:
-
Update the
-v
or--volume
flag to point to theconfig
directory path rather than the keystore file’s path. For an example, see Create an encrypted Elasticsearch keystore. - Retry the command.
On this page
- Install Docker Desktop or Docker Engine
- Pull the Elasticsearch Docker image
- Start a single-node cluster with Docker
- Enroll additional nodes
- Setting JVM heap size
- Next steps
- Security certificates and keys
- Start a multi-node cluster with Docker Compose
- Prerequisites
- Prepare the environment
.env
docker-compose.yml
- Start your cluster with security enabled and configured
- Stop and remove the deployment
- Next steps
- Using the Docker images in production
- Set
vm.max_map_count
to at least262144
- Linux
- macOS with
- Windows and macOS with
- Windows with
- Configuration files must be readable by the
elasticsearch
user - Increase ulimits for nofile and nproc
- Disable swapping
- Randomize published ports
- Manually set the heap size
- Pin deployments to a specific image version
- Always bind data volumes
- Avoid using
loop-lvm
mode - Centralize your logs
- Configuring Elasticsearch with Docker
- Mounting Elasticsearch configuration files
- Create an encrypted Elasticsearch keystore
- Using custom Docker images
- Troubleshoot Docker errors for Elasticsearch
- elasticsearch.keystore is a directory
- elasticsearch.keystore: Device or resource busy
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