Thank you for the assistance, jasontedor...it appears to be working. At least, I think so...sorry this is for a course and I'm still getting familiar with elasticsearch. The output so far (when I run the elasticsearch command) is as follows:
[2018-02-17T22:03:39,314][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] [] initializing ...
[2018-02-17T22:03:39,396][INFO ][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [LSVW6GD] using [1] data paths, mounts [[/ (overlay)]], net usable_space [19.8gb], net total_space [42.6gb], types [overlay]
[2018-02-17T22:03:39,397][INFO ][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [LSVW6GD] heap size [990.7mb], compressed ordinary object pointers [true]
[2018-02-17T22:03:39,400][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] node name [LSVW6GD] derived from node ID [LSVW6GD2RUm2Cdo0B6p1eA]; set [node.name] to override
[2018-02-17T22:03:39,400][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] version[6.2.1], pid[2532], build[7299dc3/2018-02-07T19:34:26.990113Z], OS[Linux/4.4.114-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/amd64], JVM[Oracle Corporation/OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM/1.8.0_161/25.161-b14]
[2018-02-17T22:03:39,401][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] JVM arguments [-Xms1g, -Xmx1g, -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC, -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=75, -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly, -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch, -Xss1m, -Djava.awt.headless=true, -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8, -Djna.nosys=true, -XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow, -Dio.netty.noUnsafe=true, -Dio.netty.noKeySetOptimization=true, -Dio.netty.recycler.maxCapacityPerThread=0, -Dlog4j.shutdownHookEnabled=false, -Dlog4j2.disable.jmx=true, -Djava.io.tmpdir=/tmp/elasticsearch.KDEQJoCy, -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError, -XX:+PrintGCDetails, -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps, -XX:+PrintTenuringDistribution, -XX:+PrintGCApplicationStoppedTime, -Xloggc:logs/gc.log, -XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation, -XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=32, -XX:GCLogFileSize=64m, -Des.path.home=/home/elastic3/elasticsearch-6.2.1, -Des.path.conf=/home/elastic3/elasticsearch-6.2.1/config]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,111][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [aggs-matrix-stats]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,111][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [analysis-common]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,112][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [ingest-common]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,112][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [lang-expression]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,112][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [lang-mustache]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,112][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [lang-painless]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,112][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [mapper-extras]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,112][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [parent-join]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,112][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [percolator]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,113][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [rank-eval]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,113][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [reindex]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,113][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [repository-url]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,113][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [transport-netty4]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,113][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] loaded module [tribe]
[2018-02-17T22:03:40,114][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [LSVW6GD] no plugins loaded
[2018-02-17T22:03:43,037][INFO ][o.e.d.DiscoveryModule ] [LSVW6GD] using discovery type [zen]
[2018-02-17T22:03:43,638][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] initialized
[2018-02-17T22:03:43,638][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] [LSVW6GD] starting ...
[2018-02-17T22:03:43,861][INFO ][o.e.t.TransportService ] [LSVW6GD] publish_address {127.0.0.1:9300}, bound_addresses {127.0.0.1:9300}
[2018-02-17T22:03:43,874][WARN ][o.e.b.BootstrapChecks ] [LSVW6GD] max number of threads [1024] for user [elastic] is too low, increase to at least [4096]
[2018-02-17T22:03:43,875][WARN ][o.e.b.BootstrapChecks ] [LSVW6GD] max virtual memory areas vm.max_map_count [65530] is too low, increase to at least [262144]
[2018-02-17T22:03:46,965][INFO ][o.e.c.s.MasterService ] [LSVW6GD] zen-disco-elected-as-master ([0] nodes joined), reason: new_master {LSVW6GD}{LSVW6GD2RUm2Cdo0B6p1eA}{d7nLDjVWQLCktRTN62E_aQ}{127.0.0.1}{127.0.0.1:9300}
[2018-02-17T22:03:46,970][INFO ][o.e.c.s.ClusterApplierService] [LSVW6GD] new_master {LSVW6GD}{LSVW6GD2RUm2Cdo0B6p1eA}{d7nLDjVWQLCktRTN62E_aQ}{127.0.0.1}{127.0.0.1:9300}, reason: apply cluster state (from master [master {LSVW6GD}{LSVW6GD2RUm2Cdo0B6p1eA}{d7nLDjVWQLCktRTN62E_aQ}{127.0.0.1}{127.0.0.1:9300} committed version [1] source [zen-disco-elected-as-master ([0] nodes joined)]])
[2018-02-17T22:03:46,994][INFO ][o.e.h.n.Netty4HttpServerTransport] [LSVW6GD] publish_address {127.0.0.1:9200}, bound_addresses {127.0.0.1:9200}
[2018-02-17T22:03:46,994][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] [LSVW6GD] started
[2018-02-17T22:03:47,008][INFO ][o.e.g.GatewayService ] [LSVW6GD] recovered [0] indices into cluster_state