# Start trial API | request body is required

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-trial-api-request-body-is-required/179626>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** license\
**Created:** [May 4, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-trial-api-request-body-is-required/179626 "2019-05-04T17:19:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/alexus/32/12696_2.png) [@alexus](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alexus)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-trial-api-request-body-is-required/179626/1 "2019-05-04T17:19:12Z")

</div>

Hello World!

I am trying to start trial by following [Start Trial API | Elasticsearch Reference [6.3] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.3/start-trial.html#_examples_24), yet running into following error:

```
# curl -X POST "localhost:9200/_license/start_trial?acknowledge=true&pretty"
{
  "error" : {
    "root_cause" : [
      {
        "type" : "parse_exception",
        "reason" : "request body is required"
      }
    ],
    "type" : "parse_exception",
    "reason" : "request body is required"
  },
  "status" : 400
}
# 

```

Please advise.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-trial-api-request-body-is-required/179626/2 "2019-05-04T17:28:40Z")

</div>

Which version of Elasticsearch are you using? I.e. what does `curl localhost:9200` report? I tried literally the same command on my local machine and it worked fine:

```auto
$ curl localhost:9200
{
  "name" : "node-0",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
  "cluster_uuid" : "ag49Av79S-6AR_sXF62Bvw",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "7.0.0",
    "build_flavor" : "default",
    "build_type" : "tar",
    "build_hash" : "b7e28a7",
    "build_date" : "2019-04-05T22:55:32.697037Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "8.0.0",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "6.7.0",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "6.0.0-beta1"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}
$ curl -X POST "localhost:9200/_license/start_trial?acknowledge=true&pretty"
{
  "acknowledged" : true,
  "trial_was_started" : true,
  "type" : "trial"
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/alexus/32/12696_2.png) [@alexus](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alexus)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-trial-api-request-body-is-required/179626/3 "2019-05-04T17:48:06Z")

</div>

version is 6.3, here is my `curl` output:

```
# curl localhost:9200
{
  "name" : "x",
  "cluster_name" : "x",
  "cluster_uuid" : "x",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "6.3.2",
    "build_flavor" : "default",
    "build_type" : "tar",
    "build_hash" : "053779d",
    "build_date" : "2018-07-20T05:20:23.451332Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "7.3.1",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "5.6.0",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "5.0.0"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}
#

```

I followed [Install Elasticsearch with Docker | Elasticsearch Reference [6.3] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.3/docker.html#docker-cli-run-dev-mode) prior starting trial.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-trial-api-request-body-is-required/179626/4 "2019-05-04T17:56:14Z")

</div>

> [@alexus](#):
>
> \_license/start\_trial?acknowledge=true&pretty

Ah you've edited your original post which linked to the 7.0 documentation. The URI is different in 6.3: `POST _xpack/license/start_trial?acknowledge=true`.

Note that the 6.3 series is [no longer maintained](https://www.elastic.co/support/eol). If you're trying out new features, it'd be best to use the most recent version you can, either 7.0.1 (latest) or 6.7.2 (maintenance) at time of writing.

---

<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:** [June 1, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-trial-api-request-body-is-required/179626/5 "2019-06-01T17:56:24Z")

</div>

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