# "Permission Denied" starting Elasticsearch

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 27, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882 "2018-04-27T20:01:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Josh\_McDonald](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/josh_mcdonald/32/30525_2.png) [@Josh\_McDonald](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Josh_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882/1 "2018-04-27T20:01:38Z")

</div>

I am trying to start Elasticsearch and I'm getting an error: /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-env: line 70: /etc/default/elasticsearch: Permission denied

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882/2 "2018-04-28T00:31:24Z")

</div>

How did you install Elasticsearch? What version, what OS?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Josh\_McDonald](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/josh_mcdonald/32/30525_2.png) [@Josh\_McDonald](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Josh_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 12:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882/3 "2018-04-28T00:43:07Z")

</div>

Installed via apt-get on Ubuntu 16.04

Installed the latest version of 6.x

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasontedor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jasontedor/32/66992_2.png) [@jasontedor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jasontedor)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882/4 "2018-04-28T17:02:25Z")

</div>

How are you starting Elasticsearch? Via the service (`systemctl start elasticsearch`) or by running the startup script directly? If the former this is unexpected. If the latter, this is expected, the packages are meant to be run via the service only.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Josh\_McDonald](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/josh_mcdonald/32/30525_2.png) [@Josh\_McDonald](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Josh_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 12:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882/5 "2018-04-30T12:38:19Z")

</div>

I was running the init.d script to start the application.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasontedor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jasontedor/32/66992_2.png) [@jasontedor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jasontedor)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882/6 "2018-04-30T13:31:26Z")

</div>

With permissions (e.g., `sudo service elasticsearch start`)?

---

<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:** [May 28, 2018, 1:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-starting-elasticsearch/129882/7 "2018-05-28T13:31:29Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.