# Elasticsearch - start checks failing as rootless containers **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** elastic-stack-security, docker\ **Created:** [June 18, 2024, 6:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-start-checks-failing-as-rootless-containers/361622 "2024-06-18T06:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecb155/32.png) [@alro](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alro)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 6:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-start-checks-failing-as-rootless-containers/361622/1 "2024-06-18T06:52:04Z")
Hi I'm trying to get an Elasctsearch cluster running on RHEL9.4 with Podman. My podman-compose files run and the cluster members try to start. but I get the following error message: ```auto {"@timestamp":"2024-06-18T09:25:08.423Z", "log.level":"ERROR", "message":"node validation exception\n[1] bootstrap checks failed. You must address the points described in the following [1] lines before starting Elasticsearch. For more information see [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/bootstrap-checks.html]\nbootstrap check failure [1] of [1]: memory locking requested for elasticsearch process but memory is not locked; for more information see [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/_memory_lock_check.html]", "ecs.version": "1.2.0","service.name":"ES_ECS","event.dataset":"elasticsearch.server","process.thread.name":"main","log.logger":"org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch","elasticsearch.node.name":"es01","elasticsearch.cluster.name":"pdvmdev08"} ``` As described I have set the `vm.max_map_count` to 262144 and restarted all podman services. (I also restarted the server 😉 ) But I still got the same error on the elastic cluster members. (Elastic Version 8.14.1) This is my podman/docker-compose file: ```auto version: "3.8" services: setup: image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} volumes: - /data/certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs user: "0" command: > bash -c ' if [x${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} == x]; then echo "Set the ELASTIC_PASSWORD environment variable in the .env file"; exit 1; elif [x${KIBANA_PASSWORD} == x]; then echo "Set the KIBANA_PASSWORD environment variable in the .env file"; exit 1; fi; if [! -f config/certs/ca.zip]; then echo "Creating CA"; bin/elasticsearch-certutil ca --silent --pem -out config/certs/ca.zip; unzip config/certs/ca.zip -d config/certs; fi; if [! -f config/certs/certs.zip]; then echo "Creating certs"; echo -ne \ "instances:\n"\ " - name: es01\n"\ " dns:\n"\ " - es01\n"\ " - localhost\n"\ " ip:\n"\ " - 127.0.0.1\n"\ " - name: es02\n"\ " dns:\n"\ " - es02\n"\ " - localhost\n"\ " ip:\n"\ " - 127.0.0.1\n"\ " - name: es03\n"\ " dns:\n"\ " - es03\n"\ " - localhost\n"\ " ip:\n"\ " - 127.0.0.1\n"\ " - name: kibana\n"\ " dns:\n"\ " - kibana\n"\ " - localhost\n"\ " ip:\n"\ " - 127.0.0.1\n"\ > config/certs/instances.yml; bin/elasticsearch-certutil cert --silent --pem -out config/certs/certs.zip --in config/certs/instances.yml --ca-cert config/certs/ca/ca.crt --ca-key config/certs/ca/ca.key; unzip config/certs/certs.zip -d config/certs; fi; echo "Setting file permissions" chown -R root:root config/certs; find . -type d -exec chmod 750 \{\} \;; find . -type f -exec chmod 640 \{\} \;; echo "Waiting for Elasticsearch availability"; until curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://es01:9200 | grep -q "missing authentication credentials"; do sleep 30; done; echo "Setting kibana_system password"; until curl -s -X POST --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt -u "elastic:${ELASTIC_PASSWORD}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://es01:9200/_security/user/kibana_system/_password -d "{\"password\":\"${KIBANA_PASSWORD}\"}" | grep -q "^{}"; do sleep 10; done; echo "All done!"; ' healthcheck: test: ["CMD-SHELL", "[-f config/certs/es01/es01.crt]"] interval: 1s timeout: 5s retries: 120 es01: depends_on: setup: condition: service_healthy image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} container_name: elasticsearch01 labels: co.elastic.logs/module: elasticsearch volumes: - /data/certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs - /data/elasticsearch/data/es01:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data - /data/elasticsearch/logs/es01:/usr/share/elasticsearch/logs ports: - 9201:9200 environment: - node.name=es01 - cluster.name=${CLUSTER_NAME} - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03 - discovery.seed_hosts=es02,es03 - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} - bootstrap.memory_lock=true - CLI_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms2g -Xmx2g - xpack.security.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=certs/es01/es01.key - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=certs/es01/es01.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=certs/es01/es01.key - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=certs/es01/es01.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.license.self_generated.type=${LICENSE} mem_limit: ${ES_MEM_LIMIT} ulimits: memlock: soft: -1 hard: -1 healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://localhost:9200 | grep -q 'missing authentication credentials'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 es02: depends_on: es01: condition: service_healthy image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} container_name: elasticsearch02 labels: co.elastic.logs/module: elasticsearch volumes: - /data/certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs - /data/elasticsearch/data/es02:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data - /data/elasticsearch/logs/es02:/usr/share/elasticsearch/logs ports: - 9202:9200 environment: - node.name=es02 - cluster.name=${CLUSTER_NAME} - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03 - discovery.seed_hosts=es01,es03 - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} - bootstrap.memory_lock=true - CLI_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms2g -Xmx2g - xpack.security.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=certs/es02/es02.key - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=certs/es02/es02.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=certs/es02/es02.key - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=certs/es02/es02.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.license.self_generated.type=${LICENSE} mem_limit: ${ES_MEM_LIMIT} ulimits: memlock: soft: -1 hard: -1 healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://localhost:9200 | grep -q 'missing authentication credentials'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 es03: depends_on: es02: condition: service_healthy image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION} container_name: elasticsearch03 labels: co.elastic.logs/module: elasticsearch volumes: - /data/certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs - /data/elasticsearch/data/es03:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data - /data/elasticsearch/logs/es03:/usr/share/elasticsearch/logs ports: - 9203:9200 environment: - node.name=es03 - cluster.name=${CLUSTER_NAME} - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03 - discovery.seed_hosts=es01,es02 - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} - bootstrap.memory_lock=true - CLI_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms2g -Xmx2g - xpack.security.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=certs/es03/es03.key - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=certs/es03/es03.crt - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=certs/es03/es03.key - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=certs/es03/es03.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate - xpack.license.self_generated.type=${LICENSE} mem_limit: ${ES_MEM_LIMIT} ulimits: memlock: soft: -1 hard: -1 healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://localhost:9200 | grep -q 'missing authentication credentials'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 kibana: depends_on: es01: condition: service_healthy image: docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:${STACK_VERSION} container_name: kibana labels: co.elastic.logs/module: kibana volumes: - /data/certs:/usr/share/kibana/config/certs - /data/kibana/data:/usr/share/kibana/data ports: - ${KIBANA_PORT}:5601 environment: - SERVERNAME=kibana - ELASTICSEARCH_HOSTS=https://es01:9200 - ELASTICSEARCH_USERNAME=kibana_system - ELASTICSEARCH_PASSWORD=${KIBANA_PASSWORD} - ELASTICSEARCH_SSL_CERTIFICATEAUTHORITIES=config/certs/ca/ca.crt - XPACK_SECURITY_ENCRYPTIONKEY=${ENCRYPTION_KEY} - XPACK_ENCRYPTEDSAVEDOBJECTS_ENCRYPTIONKEY=${ENCRYPTION_KEY} - XPACK_REPORTING_ENCRYPTIONKEY=${ENCRYPTION_KEY} mem_limit: ${KB_MEM_LIMIT} healthcheck: test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "curl -s -I http://localhost:5601 | grep -q 'HTTP/1.1 302 Found'", ] interval: 10s timeout: 10s retries: 120 logstash: depends_on: es01: condition: service_healthy kibana: condition: service_healthy image: docker.elastic.co/logstash/logstash:${STACK_VERSION} container_name: logtash labels: co.elastic.logs/module: logstash user: root volumes: - /data/logtash/data:/usr/share/logstash/data - /data/logtash/config/:/usr/share/logstash/pipeline/:ro - /data/certs:/usr/share/logstash/certs environment: - NODE_NAME="logstash" - xpack.monitoring.enabled=false - ELASTIC_USER=elastic - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} - ELASTIC_HOSTS=https://es01:9200 command: logstash -f /usr/share/logstash/pipeline/logstash.conf ports: - "5044:5044/udp" mem_limit: ${LS_MEM_LIMIT} ``` --\> copied from the official Elastic repo. Where is my error ☹ I cant find it? Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 10:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-start-checks-failing-as-rootless-containers/361622/2 "2024-06-18T10:24:00Z")
> [@alro](#): > > As described I have set the `vm.max_map_count` to 262144 and restarted all podman services. (I also restarted the server 😉 ) That doesn't look to be related to the error Elasticsearch is reporting: `[1] bootstrap checks failed. You must address the points described in the following [1] lines before starting Elasticsearch. For more information see [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/bootstrap-checks.html] bootstrap check failure [1] of [1]: memory locking requested for elasticsearch process but memory is not locked; for more information see [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/_memory_lock_check.html]` ---
**Author:** ![alro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecb155/32.png) [@alro](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alro)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 11:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-start-checks-failing-as-rootless-containers/361622/3 "2024-06-18T11:14:09Z")
Hi David You might be right. But the main problem is that it's not possible to run ELASTIC containers rootless with podman. As soon as I started it as root all containers came up and worked as expected. Does anyone have a solution for that issue? ---
**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-start-checks-failing-as-rootless-containers/361622/4 "2024-06-18T11:31:48Z")
I don't see the relationship between that and the message `memory locking requested for elasticsearch process but memory is not locked`. As described in the docs linked from that message, to address this you need to set `bootstrap.memory_lock: false`. ---
**Author:** ![alro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecb155/32.png) [@alro](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alro)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 11:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-start-checks-failing-as-rootless-containers/361622/6 "2024-06-18T11:53:58Z")
Hi David 👍👍 That helped and it worked now also in rootles. THANKS for your help