Elasticsearch can't write to log files

Question

I would like to activate logs of elasticsearch .

When I run elasticsearch binaries, I realize that I have problems with logging : the configuration cannot be loaded !

Answer 1

Your elasticsearch.yml file as well as logging.yml file will be in the /etc/elasticsearch folder.

Create a config folder in your elasticsearch folder in /usr/share and move the .yml files to the config folder

Now run /bin/elasticsearch start and it will work.

Answer 2

You can do symlinks, but if you simply want to point elasticsearch to the desired config directory, you can use the following:

/usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch --default.path.conf=/etc/elasticsearch/

Answer 3

I'm running elasicsearch with the user elasticsearch, so I used this command:

sudo su elasticsearch -c './bin/elasticsearch -d --default.path.conf=/etc/elasticsearch'

from the dir where elasticsearch is installed. Had to do:

sudo chown -R elasticsearch:elasticsearch .

in there though because otherwise it won't have write access to the log files. I don't know how this would work via the debian startup scripts, but this seems to work fine like this.

Answer 4

I got into the same issue and was wondering how they could miss it in the installation script of elastic search. So, after some digging here is what I found:

1. It looks like you installed elastic search using yum or apt-get or else you would have had the 'config' directory under ES_HOME.

2. Checking the init.d/elasticsearch shows the following:

   DAEMON_OPTS="-d -p $PID_FILE --default.path.home=$ES_HOME --default.path.logs=$LOG_DIR --default.path.data=$DATA_DIR --default.path.conf=$CONF_DIR"

   :

   # Start Daemon

   start-stop-daemon -d $ES_HOME --start -b --user "$ES_USER" -c "$ES_USER" --pidfile "$PID_FILE" --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS

3. So, all the variables are properly initialized and then passed as command line parameters.

4. So, the best way for you to start is using the service:

   >sudo service elasticsearch start

5. It will make sure that all the config and log parameters are passed to the main command.

6. Check logs under /var/log/$NAME that would be '/var/log/elasticsearch`

Answer 5

Following this worked for me.

Your elasticsearch.yml file as well as logging.yml file will be in the /etc/elasticsearch folder.

Create a config folder in your elasticsearch folder in /usr/share and move the .yml files to the config folder