ES service could not start

[Qing_Liu]

Environments: 4GB memory virtual machine, Ubuntu 16.04 , jdk-8, ES-6.4.2

No message outputs after executing:

sudo systemctl start elasticsearch

after excuting:

sudo /etc/init.d/elasticsearch start

it says : [ ok ] Starting elasticsearch (via systemctl): elasticsearch.service. .

But I can't find the progress (ps -ef | grep elasticsearch prints nothing) and the directory/var/log/elasticsearch only has a gc.log.0.current log without any error message.

[TimV (Tim Vernum)]

Have you checked the systemd logs? (use journalctl)

[Qing_Liu]

I followed your suggestion, sudo journalctl -u elasticsearch.service prints many Errors :

elasticsearch[5572]: 2018-10-17 14:12:37,074 main ERROR RollingFileManager (/usr/share/elasticsearch/logs/elasticse
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open0(Native Method)
......
elasticsearch[5572]: 2018-10-17 14:12:37,091 main ERROR Could not create plugin of type class org.apache.logging.lo
at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.AbstractManager.getManager(AbstractManager.j
......

Error messages make a hit of permission problem.
After changing the owner of /var/logs/elasticsearch and /usr/share/elasticsearch to elastcisearch:elasticsearch, new error messages are logged in /usr/share/elasticsearch as follow:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to access 'path.data' (/usr/share/elasticsearch/data)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.FilePermissionUtils.addDirectoryPath(FilePermissionUtils.java:70) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addFilePermissions(Security.java:298) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.createPermissions(Security.java:253) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.configure(Security.java:122) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:208) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:326) [elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:136) [elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:127) [elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86) [elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124) [elasticsearch-cli-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90) [elasticsearch-cli-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:93) [elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:86) [elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
Caused by: java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /usr/share/elasticsearch/data
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.translateToIOException(UnixException.java:84) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:102) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:107) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at sun.nio.fs.UnixFileSystemProvider.createDirectory(UnixFileSystemProvider.java:384) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectory(Files.java:674) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at java.nio.file.Files.createAndCheckIsDirectory(Files.java:781) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectories(Files.java:767) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.ensureDirectoryExists(Security.java:412) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.FilePermissionUtils.addDirectoryPath(FilePermissionUtils.java:68) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
... 12 more
[2018-10-17T17:07:23,171][WARN ][o.e.b.ElasticsearchUncaughtExceptionHandler] [] uncaught exception in thread [main]
org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.StartupException: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to access 'path.data' (/usr/share/elasticsearch/data)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:140) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:127) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124) ~[elasticsearch-cli-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90) ~[elasticsearch-cli-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:93) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:86) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to access 'path.data' (/usr/share/elasticsearch/data)
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.FilePermissionUtils.addDirectoryPath(FilePermissionUtils.java:70) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addFilePermissions(Security.java:298) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.createPermissions(Security.java:253) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.configure(Security.java:122) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:208) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:326) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:136) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
... 6 more
Caused by: java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /usr/share/elasticsearch/data
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.translateToIOException(UnixException.java:84) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:102) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:107) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at sun.nio.fs.UnixFileSystemProvider.createDirectory(UnixFileSystemProvider.java:384) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectory(Files.java:674) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at java.nio.file.Files.createAndCheckIsDirectory(Files.java:781) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectories(Files.java:767) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.ensureDirectoryExists(Security.java:412) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.FilePermissionUtils.addDirectoryPath(FilePermissionUtils.java:68) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addFilePermissions(Security.java:298) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.createPermissions(Security.java:253) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.configure(Security.java:122) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:208) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:326) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:136) ~[elasticsearch-6.4.2.jar:6.4.2]
... 6 more

I want to provide more information about how I install the ES:
I first install ES (sudo apt install default-jdk && sudo apt install elasticsearch), and the ES version is 1.. .
Then, I remove the ES with sudo apt remove elasticsearch and sudo apt autoremove, and manually install the current ES6.4.2 with the deb file.

[TimV (Tim Vernum)]

Well it definitely looks like your install has gone badly - but unless you're going to wipe the whole box and start again, the only suggestion I have is to keep trying to start the service and then fix up the permissions as you run into them.