# Kibana 8.19.17 fails to start after upgrade with FATAL Error \[ERR\_REQUIRE\_ESM\] in @elastic/charts **URL:** \ **Category:** Kibana\ **Created:** [June 30, 2026, 9:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-19-17-fails-to-start-after-upgrade-with-fatal-error-err-require-esm-in-elastic-charts/387406 "2026-06-30T09:08:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JPPereira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@JPPereira](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/JPPereira)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 9:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-19-17-fails-to-start-after-upgrade-with-fatal-error-err-require-esm-in-elastic-charts/387406/1 "2026-06-30T09:08:15Z")
Hi everyone, I am experiencing a crash loop with Kibana version 8.19.17 after upgrade on Rocky Linux 9.8 (Kernel 5.14). The service starts but crashes and restarts every ~20 seconds. ### Error Logs Here is the fatal error captured from the journal logs: ```plaintext FATAL Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM]: require() of ES Module /usr/share/kibana/node_modules/@elastic/charts/node_modules/uuid/dist-node/index.js from /usr/share/kibana/node_modules/@elastic/charts/dist/components/chart.js not supported. Instead change the require of index.js in /usr/share/kibana/node_modules/@elastic/charts/dist/components/chart.js to a dynamic import() which is available in all CommonJS modules. ``` Can someone help? I did not get any king of errors during the upgrade and the cluster nodes are running without problems. ---
**Author:** ![strawberryfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@strawberryfly](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/strawberryfly)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 7:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-19-17-fails-to-start-after-upgrade-with-fatal-error-err-require-esm-in-elastic-charts/387406/2 "2026-07-01T07:41:44Z")
Same error here. Debian 12, kibana/stable 9.4.3 amd64 edit: i downgraded to version 9.4.2 and its working for now (apt install kibana=9.4.2) ---
**Author:** ![JPPereira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@JPPereira](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/JPPereira)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 10:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-19-17-fails-to-start-after-upgrade-with-fatal-error-err-require-esm-in-elastic-charts/387406/3 "2026-07-02T10:41:47Z")
### 🚨 Important Update (Lab Testing): I did some further troubleshooting in an isolated lab environment and confirmed this is a recurring regression across multiple branches: - Upgrading from **8.19.16 to 8.19.17** breaks Kibana with this exact ESM compatibility error. - Upgrading from **9.4.2 to 9.4.3** also breaks Kibana with the identical stack trace. This highly suggests that a recent shared dependency update (most likely `@elastic/charts` changing how it pulls the `uuid` package) was merged into both active release branches (8.x and 9.x) simultaneously, breaking the CommonJS/ESM module boundaries. **Current Production Status:** I currently have a production cluster with 9 data nodes already upgraded to **9.4.3** , running alongside Kibana still on **9.4.2**. This specific cross-version setup is working perfectly fine without any issues, further proving that the breakdown happens strictly during the Kibana 9.4.3/8.19.17 internal initialization process. ---
**Author:** ![markov00](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/markov00/32/33316_2.png) [@markov00](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/markov00)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-19-17-fails-to-start-after-upgrade-with-fatal-error-err-require-esm-in-elastic-charts/387406/4 "2026-07-03T16:56:24Z")
We shipped a vulnerability patch to `@elastic/charts` in **9.4.3** and **8.19.17**. The patched version pulls in `uuid@14`, which is ESM-only and requires Node.js's `require()` of ESM support to load. The `--no-experimental-require-module` flag — which disables that support — was removed from the default `node.options` in 9.4.0 / 8.19.15, so fresh installs work fine. But if you've ever edited your `node.options` (e.g. to change `--max-old-space-size`), your package manager preserves the old file on upgrade, keeping the stale flag. That's what causes the crash. **Immediate fix:** check `/etc/kibana/node.options` and remove the `--no-experimental-require-module` line, then start Kibana. **Permanent fix:** we're removing the server-side `@elastic/charts` imports entirely ([#276273](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/276273)), so this dependency won't be loaded on the server at all regardless of `node.options` flags. ---
**Author:** ![JPPereira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@JPPereira](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/JPPereira)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-19-17-fails-to-start-after-upgrade-with-fatal-error-err-require-esm-in-elastic-charts/387406/5 "2026-07-07T16:07:51Z")
Hi markov00, Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! That was exactly the issue. I checked my `/etc/kibana/node.options` and indeed, the `--no-experimental-require-module` flag was still present due to my previous custom memory configurations being preserved during the upgrade. Commenting out that line and restarting the service fixed the crash instantly. Kibana 9.4.3 is now up and running perfectly.