How to run Elasticsearch as root user in Linux machine

Question

Hi Guys,

I am trying to run the ElasticSearch server. But I am getting the below error.

[2020-06-18T13:49:48,487][ERROR][o.e.b.ElasticsearchUncaughtExceptionHandler] [localhost.localdomain] uncaught exception in thread [main]
org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.StartupException: java.lang.RuntimeException: can not run elasticsearch as root
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:174) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:161) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:127) ~[elasticsearch-cli-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90) ~[elasticsearch-cli-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:126) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:92) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: can not run elasticsearch as root
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.initializeNatives(Bootstrap.java:111) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:178) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:393) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:170) ~[elasticsearch-7.7.1.jar:7.7.1]
        ... 6 more

Answer 1

Hi@akhtar,

By default, ElasticSearch will not work with the root user.  But you can change configuration dynamically. you should be able to achieve this by enabling property -Des.insecure.allow.root

bin/elasticsearch -Des.insecure.allow.root=true

I hope this will solve your error.

Answer 2

Step 1: Pull images of elastic search from Docker/install from web. 

Step 2: Execute Docker-Exec command to get location on Bash.

Step 3: vi bin/elasticsearch.

Step 4: Add Property to allow on root. ES_JAVA_OPTS="-Des.insecure.allow.root=true"

Step 5: Save and Close