How the heck do you setup the default password?

[craigvphillips]

I download elastic 6.1.4
Unzip elastic 6.1.4
install x-pack
start elasticsearch 6.1.4
run setup-passwords auto

Unexpected response code [403] from calling GET http://127.0.0.1:9200/_xpack/security/_authenticate?pretty
Possible causes include:

• The relative path of the URL is incorrect. Is there a proxy in-between?
• The protocol (http/https) does not match the port.
• Is this really an Elasticsearch server?

ERROR: Uknown error

I don't understand. Once i install x-pack it will require authentication to access, yet that setup-plugins appears to try and hit ES without it... so it fails. How in the heck is that ever supposed to work?

[TimV (Tim Vernum)]

If you're interested in the technical details they're documented here: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/x-pack/current/setting-up-authentication.html#bootstrap-elastic-passwords

But knowing the details isn't necessarily going to fix the problem for you.
Is that list of steps completly accurate?

There shouldn't be any way to get a 403 from that URL.

[kvudata (Krishna Vudata)]

For other folks who come by this, I had the same issue - doing a curl against the URL it complains about provides more information - you need to have an elastic stack license which supports security.