# ElasticSearch (2.3.1) didn't start in case of duplicate variables in elasticsearch.yml

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-2-3-1-didnt-start-in-case-of-duplicate-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/53091>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 17, 2016, 5:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-2-3-1-didnt-start-in-case-of-duplicate-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/53091 "2016-06-17T05:48:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Harsh\_Pandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9f8e36/32.png) [@Harsh\_Pandit](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Harsh_Pandit)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 5:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-2-3-1-didnt-start-in-case-of-duplicate-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/53091/1 "2016-06-17T05:48:30Z")

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Hi Team

I recently figured out that if somehow i define same variable twice in elasticsearch.yml, My Elasticsearch server doesn't come up after restart. Strange part is that we don't get anything in /var/log/elasticsearch/cluster\_name.log and service gets fail.

`* Starting Elasticsearch Server [fail]`

Here is my faulty configuration file :-  
# Cluster name  
[cluster.name](http://cluster.name): my\_es\_cluster

```
node.name: "node2"
node.master: true
node.data: true
node.rack_id: "A"
# run only 1 copy of ES in this machine
node.max_local_storage_nodes: 1

# run only 1 copy of ES in this machine
node.max_local_storage_nodes: 1

# take all memory even if not using it
bootstrap.mlockall: true

# number of master nodes
discovery.zen.minimum_master_nodes: 1

# other nodes
discovery.zen.ping.multicast.enabled: false
discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts: [] 

```

After deleting below mentioned duplicate part, I got it fixed -  
# run only 1 copy of ES in this machine  
node.max\_local\_storage\_nodes: 1

What i expect? - Is there any way to get details of such errors as I had to figure it out by myself and wasted like 2 hrs.

Any suggestions/comment would be appreciable.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 7:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-2-3-1-didnt-start-in-case-of-duplicate-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/53091/2 "2016-06-17T07:36:26Z")

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hey,

for future reference, a quick overview over your configuration (without the comments, and thus duplicates are easier to spot) can be achieved by using `grep "^[^#]" config/elasticsearch.yml`. In addition, the next major version of elasticsearch will have strict setting parsing and return an error on start up if this happens.

--Alex

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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:** [July 5, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-2-3-1-didnt-start-in-case-of-duplicate-variables-in-elasticsearch-yml/53091/3 "2017-07-05T22:42:52Z")

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Closed on July 5, 2017, 10:42pm UTC