# Elasticsearch fails to start

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-fails-to-start/160347>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 11, 2018, 10:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-fails-to-start/160347 "2018-12-11T10:38:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sph18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@sph18](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sph18)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 10:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-fails-to-start/160347/1 "2018-12-11T10:38:20Z")

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Hi everyone one. I am a junior sysadmin and I am very new to Elasticsearch.

My OS is CentOS 6.9 and I have installed elasticsearch-2.4.6 with Java 1.8.0\_191  
When I start the elasticsearch service I get the following error:

> service elasticsearch start  
> Starting elasticsearch: log4j:ERROR setFile(null,true) call failed.  
> java.io.FileNotFoundException: /var/log/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.log (Permission denied)  
> log4j:ERROR Either File or DatePattern options are not set for appender [index\_search\_slow\_log\_file].  
> Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to access 'path.data' (/var/lib/elasticsearch/elasticsearch)  
> Likely root cause: java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /var/lib/elasticsearch/elasticsearch  
> 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.createDirectory(UnixFileSystemProvider.java:384)  
> at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectory(Files.java:674)  
> at java.nio.file.Files.createAndCheckIsDirectory(Files.java:781)  
> at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectories(Files.java:767)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.ensureDirectoryExists(Security.java:337)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addPath(Security.java:314)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addFilePermissions(Security.java:259)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.createPermissions(Security.java:212)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.configure(Security.java:118)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setupSecurity(Bootstrap.java:212)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:183)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:286)  
> at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:45)  
> Refer to the log for complete error details.  
> [FAILED]

From that I've gone to look at the following logs:  
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /var/log/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.log (Permission denied)  
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /var/log/elasticsearch/elasticsearch\_deprecation.log (Permission denied)  
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /var/log/elasticsearch/elasticsearch\_index\_indexing\_slowlog.log (Permission denied)  
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /var/log/elasticsearch/elasticsearch\_index\_search\_slowlog.log (Permission denied)

But the logs don't exist. Also with it stating "Permission denied" I did check the permission on the /var/log/elasticsearch folder and it was drwxr-xr-x which I would have through would be correct as I am starting the services as root.

Not sure where to look next, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-fails-to-start/160347/2 "2018-12-11T20:03:13Z")

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How did you install Elasticsearch?  
Why are you running such an old version?

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**Author:** ![sph18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@sph18](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sph18)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 8:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-fails-to-start/160347/3 "2018-12-12T08:26:19Z")

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Thanks for the reply Mark. The problem is now resolved. ES is supporting Nessus LCE. Ended up re installing there software, which resolved the problem. I don't now why there using such a old version, but have said that it need to be that one.

Would have deleted the post but was unable to.

Thanks again.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 9:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-fails-to-start/160347/4 "2018-12-12T09:37:41Z")

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> [@sph18](#):
>
> Would have deleted the post but was unable to.

You are better off not doing that, it adds to the general knowledge base 🙂

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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:** [January 9, 2019, 9:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-fails-to-start/160347/5 "2019-01-09T09:37:46Z")

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