# Shield not respecting CONF\_DIR
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-not-respecting-conf-dir/46014
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** elastic-stack-security
**Created:** [April 1, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-not-respecting-conf-dir/46014 "2016-04-01T03:58:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jakauppila](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jakauppila)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-not-respecting-conf-dir/46014/1 "2016-04-01T03:58:48Z")
So I'm running Elasticsearch on Windows and I am separating the Elasticsearch node configuration from Elasticsearch itself with the following structure:
D:\elasticsearch\elasticsearch-2.3.0\
- This is where Elasticsearch lives and we utilize the \plugins directory since they're version-specific.
D:\elasticsearch\elasticsearch-node\
- Within here, we use \config, \data, \logs, and \work
I am configuring the following environment variables on the server:
```auto
setx JAVA_HOME "D:\java\jre8"
setx DATA_DIR "D:\elasticsearch-node\data"
setx LOG_DIR "D:\elasticsearch-node\logs"
setx CONF_DIR "D:\elasticsearch-node\config"
setx ES_MIN_MEM "8g"
setx ES_MAX_MEM "8g"
```
When installing Shield, it is tossing the /shield configuration folder within _D:\elasticsearch\elasticsearch-2.3.0\config_ rather than my defined _D:\elasticsearch-node\config_ as overridden with the environment variable.
It appears that Elasticsearch itself is looking for the Shield configuration within %CONF\_DIR%, but when running _esusers_ to add an initial admin, it is getting written to _D:\elasticsearch\elasticsearch-2.3.0\config_
I believe to correct this, you would just need to check for the environment variable and add an additional value to the ES\_PARAMS within _.in.bat_ for Shield.
```auto
if "%CONF_DIR%" == "" set CONF_DIR=%ES_HOME%\config
```
```auto
set ES_PARAMS=-Des.path.home="%ES_HOME%" -Des.default.path.conf="%CONF_DIR%"
```
---
### Author:  [@Baboune](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Baboune)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2016, 9:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-not-respecting-conf-dir/46014/2 "2016-04-01T09:42:25Z")
Hi,
On linux, the user running "esusers" commands seem to matter. When the user has the wrong access right, then the error message points to a faulty directory error like:
> ERROR: The configuration directory [/etc/elasticsearch/shield] does not exist. The esusers tool expects Shield configuration files in that location.
> The plugin may not have been installed with the correct configuration path. If [/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/shield] exists, please copy the shield directory to [/etc/elasticsearch]
Changing user to an admin level user like root, then the message disappears.
See [Shield Authentication Error - #8 by Baboune](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-authentication-error/44185/8)
But yes it seems shield ignores where the rest of the CONFIG\_DIR is and elects its own location, /etc/elasticsearch on linux.
---
### Author:  [@jaymode](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jaymode)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2016, 11:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-not-respecting-conf-dir/46014/3 "2016-04-05T11:13:46Z")
Thank you for the feedback on the issues you've found with the esusers tool. I have opened issues for both problems
---
### Author:  [@geekpete](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/geekpete)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2016, 6:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-not-respecting-conf-dir/46014/4 "2016-07-14T06:06:45Z")
Hi Jay,
Did you have github links for those issues?
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/shield-not-respecting-conf-dir/46014/5 "2017-07-06T13:42:54Z")