What would cause Elastic Search to not produce log files? - amazon-web-services

Question

I have installed Elastic Search V5.0 on my ubuntu64 virtual machine via the debian package given using this tutorial from Elastic
As explained in the tutorial sudo -i service elasticsearch start wont give any messages here (poor design imo)
I tried adding STDOUT.log file to the directory and it still is empty after starting elastic search
If I sudo bin/elasticsearch I get this trace:
Exception in thread "main" ElasticsearchParseException[malformed, expected settings to start with 'object', instead was [VALUE_STRING]]
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.loader.XContentSettingsLoader.load(XContentSettingsLoader.java:70)
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.loader.XContentSettingsLoader.load(XContentSettingsLoader.java:50)
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.loader.YamlSettingsLoader.load(YamlSettingsLoader.java:50)
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings$Builder.loadFromStream(Settings.java:938)
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings$Builder.loadFromPath(Settings.java:927)
at org.elasticsearch.node.internal.InternalSettingsPreparer.prepareEnvironment(InternalSettingsPreparer.java:102)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.initialEnvironment(Bootstrap.java:207)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:247)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:112)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:103)
at org.elasticsearch.cli.SettingCommand.execute(SettingCommand.java:54)
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:96)
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:62)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:80)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:73)
And without sudo provlidges:
Exception in thread "main" SettingsException[Failed to load settings from
/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.yml]; nested: AccessDeniedException[/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.yml];
Likely root cause: java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.yml
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.translateToIOException(UnixException.java:84)
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:102)
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:107)
at sun.nio.fs.UnixFileSystemProvider.newByteChannel(UnixFileSystemProvider.java:214)
at java.nio.file.Files.newByteChannel(Files.java:361)
at java.nio.file.Files.newByteChannel(Files.java:407)
at java.nio.file.spi.FileSystemProvider.newInputStream(FileSystemProvider.java:384)
at java.nio.file.Files.newInputStream(Files.java:152)
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings$Builder.loadFromPath(Settings.java:927)
at org.elasticsearch.node.internal.InternalSettingsPreparer.prepareEnvironment(InternalSettingsPreparer.java:102)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.initialEnvironment(Bootstrap.java:207)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:247)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:112)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:103)
at org.elasticsearch.cli.SettingCommand.execute(SettingCommand.java:54)
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:96)
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:62)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:80)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:73)
I'm not a fan of posting so much text on stackoverflow but here is my configuration located at: /etc/elasticsearch
# ------------------------------------ Node ------------------------------------
#
# Use a descriptive name for the node:
#
cluster.name: sdc-test-es-cluster
#
# ------------------------------------ Node ------------------------------------
#
# Use a descriptive name for the node:
#
node.name: node-1
#
# Add custom attributes to the node:
#
#node.attr.rack: r1
#
# ----------------------------------- Paths ------------------------------------
#
# Path to directory where to store the data (separate multiple locations by comma):
#
path.data: /var/lib/elasticsearch
#
# Path to log files:
#
path.logs: /var/log/elasticsearch
#
# ----------------------------------- Memory -----------------------------------
#
# Lock the memory on startup:
#
#bootstrap.memory_lock: true
#
# Make sure that the heap size is set to about half the memory available
# on the system and that the owner of the process is allowed to use this
# limit.
#
# Elasticsearch performs poorly when the system is swapping the memory.
#
# ---------------------------------- Network -----------------------------------
#
# Set the bind address to a specific IP (IPv4 or IPv6):
#
#network.host: 192.168.0.1
#
# Set a custom port for HTTP:
#
#http.port: 9200
#
# For more information, see the documentation at:
# <http://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/modules-network.html>
#
# --------------------------------- Discovery ----------------------------------
#
# Pass an initial list of hosts to perform discovery when new node is started:
# The default list of hosts is ["127.0.0.1", "[::1]"]
#
#discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts: ["host1", "host2"]
#
# Prevent the "split brain" by configuring the majority of nodes (total number of nodes / 2 + 1):
#
#discovery.zen.minimum_master_nodes: 3
#
# For more information, see the documentation at:
# <http://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/modules-discovery.html>
#
# ---------------------------------- Gateway -----------------------------------
#
# Block initial recovery after a full cluster restart until N nodes are started:
#
#gateway.recover_after_nodes: 3
#
# For more information, see the documentation at:
# <http://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/modules-gateway.html>
#
# ---------------------------------- Various -----------------------------------
#
# Disable starting multiple nodes on a single system:
#
#node.max_local_storage_nodes: 1
#
# Require explicit names when deleting indices:
#
#action.destructive_requires_name: true

Answer 1

The problem is with misconfigured Elasticsearch.
Ensure that ES uses config file from correct location. For example, "without sudo priviledges" outputs wrong location.
Ensure you don't have mistakes in config.
To isolate problem, comment out everything in config, then uncomment line-by-line your custom settings in config, and try to start. If find the line causing the problem, check documentation.
Also, try to start without "-d" option, Elasticsearch will output full stacktrace in console, and it should tell more about misconfigured setting.