# Logstash service issues (LOGSTASH\_HOME / path.settings)
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-service-issues-logstash-home-path-settings/72259
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [January 20, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-service-issues-logstash-home-path-settings/72259 "2017-01-20T04:24:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mrbanzai](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mrbanzai)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-service-issues-logstash-home-path-settings/72259/1 "2017-01-20T04:24:07Z")
In attempting to debug why the Logstash 5.1.2 wasn't starting after an installation / upgrade using the Puppet module ([https://github.com/elastic/puppet-logstash](https://github.com/elastic/puppet-logstash)), I discovered some inconsistencies between the error messages displayed and the actual behavior of the service launcher.
Most of my issues are derived from attempting to clear this error message:
`WARNING: Could not find logstash.yml which is typically located in $LS_HOME/config or /etc/logstash. You can specify the path using --path.settings. Continuing using the defaults`
- from [https://github.com/elastic/logstash/blob/master/logstash-core/lib/logstash/runner.rb#L169](https://github.com/elastic/logstash/blob/master/logstash-core/lib/logstash/runner.rb#L169)
To begin with, it makes mention of `LS_HOME`, which doesn't seem to align with any environment variable on Linux systems (though I see references to it in Windows batch scripts). Perhaps that's just a documentation issue, but let's continue anyway with `LOGSTASH_HOME`, which seems to be more correct from reading through the code.
It seems that `LOGSTASH_HOME` is assumed to be the path containing the application, in addition to `patterns` and `plugins` and the base path for the configuration file (according to the message above). However, this doesn't seem to allow for the `/usr/share/logstash` split from `/etc/logstash` (which previously held, and is apparently still expected to hold, the patterns, plugins, and configuration), as it's a single environment variable. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the code paths as I trace through `bin/logstash` into `lib/bootstrap/environment.rb` and so on?
At no point can I find any sort of default that would make use of `/etc/logstash` as the above message seems to suggest, nor does it seem that I can utilize `LOGSTASH_HOME` cleanly. The message regarding `--path.settings` at least seems to offer some help, but that message doesn't seem to suggest that it's required in order to make use of configuration in `/etc/logstash`.
In addition, at least on Red Hat systems, it doesn't seem that any of the environment information in `startup.options` is actually passed through to the service. I've read the header regarding its usage in `bin/system-install`, but I would agree with the comments on [https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/6482](https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/6482) that it's unexpected behavior for the environment information specified in `startup.options` to not get carried through to the service installation (either via `/etc/sysconfig/logstash` or `/etc/defaults/logstash`, which PleaseRun makes sure to reference in the systemd unit file). Thankfully, it seems work is being done on this front, thanks to the addition of environment options for PleaseRun!
As it stands, I've managed to dig through the code and find a workable solution, by setting `LS_OPTS="--path.settings /etc/logstash"` in `startup.options` and re-running `system-install` (and I suppose adding `JAVA_HOME=/path/to/jdk` directly to `/etc/sysconfig/logstash` for now), but I thought I should point out what I found to be some pretty annoying discrepancies between "expected" behavior (both based on previous releases, and the error messages displayed) and what was actually required.
Hopefully this helps someone else out there, and this process can be made a bit smoother in a future release.
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### Author:  [@mrbanzai](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mrbanzai)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2017, 5:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-service-issues-logstash-home-path-settings/72259/2 "2017-01-20T05:26:19Z")
I wanted to go ahead and update my previous message with a few things that I've learned while continuing to poke around ...
Apparently the `LS_SETTINGS_DIR` environment variable allows setting `/etc/logstash` as the configuration root, which is used by the Logstash runner. Coincidentally, the Logstash Puppet module sets this variable in `startup.options`, though it doesn't yet get handed to the service (pending the updates to `system-install`).
Additionally, the maintainers of that Puppet module were kind enough to pre-set `--path.settings` in `LS_OPTS` ... which I would have noticed had I not been overriding `LS_OPTS` due to a legacy requirement (needing to increase the number of workers). So, many thanks to those individuals for trying to make this transparent for me!
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2017, 5:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-service-issues-logstash-home-path-settings/72259/3 "2017-02-17T05:26:36Z")
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