# How to correctly use variables in the elasticsearch.yml file in Ubuntu

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-correctly-use-variables-in-the-elasticsearch-yml-file-in-ubuntu/89109>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 12, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-correctly-use-variables-in-the-elasticsearch-yml-file-in-ubuntu/89109 "2017-06-12T20:55:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MountainMoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mountainmoon/32/125700_2.png) [@MountainMoon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/MountainMoon)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-correctly-use-variables-in-the-elasticsearch-yml-file-in-ubuntu/89109/1 "2017-06-12T20:55:07Z")

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Hi All:  
In the /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml file. I set the [cluster.name](http://cluster.name) as following.  
[cluster.name](http://cluster.name): ${CLUSTER\_NAME}

And since it's ubuntu, I add  
CLUSTER\_NAME=ess01  
to the end of /etc/default/elasticsearch file.

But when I try to  
sudo -i service elasticsearch start

I received the following exception:

- Starting Elasticsearch Server  
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'CLUSTER\_NAME'  
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.PropertyPlaceholder.parseStringValue(PropertyPlaceholder.java:116)  
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.PropertyPlaceholder.replacePlaceholders(PropertyPlaceholder.java:69)  
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings$Builder.replacePropertyPlaceholders(Settings.java:1096)  
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings$Builder.replacePropertyPlaceholders(Settings.java:1056)  
at org.elasticsearch.node.InternalSettingsPreparer.initializeSettings(InternalSettingsPreparer.java:136)  
at org.elasticsearch.node.InternalSettingsPreparer.prepareEnvironment(InternalSettingsPreparer.java:115)  
at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.createEnv(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:72)  
at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:67)  
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:122)  
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:88)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:91)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:84)

Thanks for your help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-correctly-use-variables-in-the-elasticsearch-yml-file-in-ubuntu/89109/2 "2017-07-10T20:55:21Z")

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