# Cant use environment variables in elasticsearch.yml

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-environment-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/117093>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 25, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-environment-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/117093 "2018-01-25T17:37:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![red888](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@red888](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/red888)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-environment-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/117093/1 "2018-01-25T17:37:42Z")

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My variable is set  
# echo $ESCLUSTER  
es-datanode-01,es-datanode-02

In ES config I have:  
`discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts: "${ESCLUSTER}"`

The service won't start.

If I add the string explicitly it does start:  
`discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts: "es-datanode-01,es-datanode-02"`

I can't use environemtns vars in my config

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**Author:** ![jpcarey](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jpcarey/32/46668_2.png) [@jpcarey](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpcarey)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-environment-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/117093/2 "2018-01-25T20:43:36Z")

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Are you running / initializing elasticsearch with the same user that you have the environment variable set in?

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**Author:** ![Bernt\_Rostad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bernt\_Rostad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bernt_Rostad)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 10:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-environment-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/117093/3 "2018-01-26T10:26:40Z")

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Skip the quotation marks and it should work:

> discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts: ${ESCLUSTER}

We do that and it works equally well if ESCLUSTER is just one server or a list of servers.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 10:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-environment-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/117093/4 "2018-02-23T10:27:11Z")

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