# Pods failing because of an environment variable

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/pods-failing-because-of-an-environment-variable/298640>\
**Category:** Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK)\
**Created:** [March 2, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/pods-failing-because-of-an-environment-variable/298640 "2022-03-02T15:32:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pkaramol](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/pkaramol/32/22610_2.png) [@pkaramol](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pkaramol)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/pods-failing-because-of-an-environment-variable/298640/1 "2022-03-02T15:32:44Z")

</div>

I am spinning up an ECK-based cluster. I haven't set any `secureSettings` but I had forgotten and set an environment variable named `gcs.client.default.credentials_file`

The pod fails to start with this error

```auto
"Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Setting [gcs.client.default.credentials_file] is a secure setting and must be stored inside the Elasticsearch keystore, but was found inside elasticsearch.yml",
"at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SecureSetting.get(SecureSetting.java:81) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.2.jar:7.16.2]",
"at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:598) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.2.jar:7.16.2]",
"at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:507) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.2.jar:7.16.2]",
"at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:477) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.2.jar:7.16.2]",
"at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:447) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.2.jar:7.16.2]",
"at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SettingsModule.<init>(SettingsModule.java:137) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.2.jar:7.16.2]",
"at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:500) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.2.jar:7.16.2]",

```

Why is that? I have not set anything specific to `elasticsearch.yml`

Why the mere existence of this env var bothers it?

If I remove the env var, everything seems to work.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![legoguy1000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/legoguy1000/32/54301_2.png) [@legoguy1000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/legoguy1000)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2022, 4:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/pods-failing-because-of-an-environment-variable/298640/2 "2022-03-03T04:32:08Z")

</div>

Because the env settings are injected into the Elasticsearch.yml configuration startup.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pkaramol](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/pkaramol/32/22610_2.png) [@pkaramol](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pkaramol)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2022, 8:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/pods-failing-because-of-an-environment-variable/298640/3 "2022-03-03T08:07:48Z")

</div>

So it automatically recognises any env var with that particular name?

Asking cause I could find this in the source [code](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![legoguy1000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/legoguy1000/32/54301_2.png) [@legoguy1000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/legoguy1000)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/pods-failing-because-of-an-environment-variable/298640/4 "2022-03-03T14:25:51Z")

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I can't tell u the exact logic. Is refer y to the docs

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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:** [March 31, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/pods-failing-because-of-an-environment-variable/298640/5 "2022-03-31T14:26:20Z")

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