# Path to repo not working

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-to-repo-not-working/65620>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 10, 2016, 10:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-to-repo-not-working/65620 "2016-11-10T10:01:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xvschneider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/3bc359/32.png) [@xvschneider](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/xvschneider)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-to-repo-not-working/65620/1 "2016-11-10T10:01:34Z")

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Hello there. I'm experiencing some issues with backing up my documents - when the path.repo points to a fileshare location, ES won't start as a service.

My setups is the following: 3 Windows Server 2012 R2 machines, one act as a load balancer, and the other two have Elastic Search data on them.

I followed the official documentation, so I modified on all machines the elasticsearch.yml file to include the path repo:

path.repo: ['\\\\Path\\To\\FileShare']

Then I try to restart each machine.  
When I start as a service, ES stops immediately. I check the logs and get this error:

[2016-11-08 06:45:58,576][WARN][bootstrap] unable to install syscall filter: syscall filtering not supported for OS: 'Windows Server 2012 R2'  
[2016-11-08 06:46:00,060][ERROR][bootstrap] Exception  
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to access 'path.repo' (\\Path\To\FileShare)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addPath(Security.java:229)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addFilePermissions(Security.java:209)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.createPermissions(Security.java:184)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.configure(Security.java:105)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setupSecurity(Bootstrap.java:196)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:167)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:285)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:35)  
Caused by: java.nio.file.NotDirectoryException: \\Path\To\FileShare  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.ensureDirectoryExists(Security.java:253)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.addPath(Security.java:227)  
... 7 more  
Suppressed: java.nio.file.FileAlreadyExistsException: \\Path\To\FileShare  
at sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.translateToIOException(WindowsException.java:81)  
at sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.rethrowAsIOException(WindowsException.java:97)  
at sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.rethrowAsIOException(WindowsException.java:102)  
at sun.nio.fs.WindowsFileSystemProvider.createDirectory(WindowsFileSystemProvider.java:504)  
at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectory(Files.java:674)  
at java.nio.file.Files.createAndCheckIsDirectory(Files.java:781)  
at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectories(Files.java:727)  
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Security.ensureDirectoryExists(Security.java:250)  
... 8 more

It only happens when ES starts as a service. Does anybody else experience this issue?  
Thank you!

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**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-to-repo-not-working/65620/2 "2016-11-10T10:32:24Z")

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`path.repo` must be a dir not a file.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xvschneider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/3bc359/32.png) [@xvschneider](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/xvschneider)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 8:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-to-repo-not-working/65620/3 "2016-11-11T08:24:06Z")

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Thanks for your reply, although it is a directory. It works just fine when I start elasticsearch.bat instead of using the service manager, so I'm guessing it's a permissions issue.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 8:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-to-repo-not-working/65620/4 "2016-12-09T08:24:32Z")

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