We're getting this error in the logs after upgrading to Elasticsearch 5.5. Somehow after this occurs, all subsequent requests fail.
[2017-07-12T13:36:41,848][ERROR][o.e.t.n.Netty4Utils ] fatal error on the network layer
at org.elasticsearch.transport.netty4.Netty4Utils.maybeDie(Netty4Utils.java:179)
at org.elasticsearch.transport.netty4.Netty4MessageChannelHandler.exceptionCaught(Netty4MessageChannelHandler.java:83)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeExceptionCaught(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:285)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.notifyHandlerException(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:850)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:364)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:348)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:340)
at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.fireChannelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:310)
at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.fireChannelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:297)
at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.callDecode(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:413)
at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.channelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:265)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:362)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:348)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:340)
at io.netty.channel.ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter.channelRead(ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter.java:86)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:362)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:348)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:340)
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline$HeadContext.channelRead(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:1334)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:362)
at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:348)
at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline.fireChannelRead(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:926)
at io.netty.channel.nio.AbstractNioByteChannel$NioByteUnsafe.read(AbstractNioByteChannel.java:134)
at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKey(NioEventLoop.java:644)
at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeysPlain(NioEventLoop.java:544)
at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeys(NioEventLoop.java:498)
at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.run(NioEventLoop.java:458)
at io.netty.util.concurrent.SingleThreadEventExecutor$5.run(SingleThreadEventExecutor.java:858)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)