# Unable to start elasticsearch service

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 22, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800 "2017-11-22T21:41:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sitilge](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sitilge/32/24583_2.png) [@sitilge](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sitilge)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800/1 "2017-11-22T21:41:41Z")

</div>

Running arch 4.13.12, elasticsearch Version: 6.0.0, Build: 8f0685b/2017-11-10T18:41:22.859Z, JVM: 1.8.0\_144

I am unable to # systemctl start elasticsearch. The logs output

elasticsearch.service: PID file /run/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.pid not readable (yet?) after start: No such file or directory

What is the workaround?

---

<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:** [November 23, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800/2 "2017-11-23T02:16:43Z")

</div>

There is something incredibly fishy here, my gut is that the error message is not really indicative of the problem.

May I ask: how much memory do you have on your system and have you modified the heap settings in `/etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options`?

---

<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:** [November 23, 2017, 4:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800/3 "2017-11-23T04:57:19Z")

</div>

Please also check the full Elasticsearch logs, usually under `/var/log/elasticsearch`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![poojagupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@poojagupta](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/poojagupta)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 4:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800/4 "2017-11-24T04:21:15Z")

</div>

how did you install elasticsearch? using yum or source code?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800/5 "2017-11-25T18:12:10Z")

</div>

I wanted to install elasticsearch on a fresh arch machine and got the same issue too.  
installed via:

# pacman -S elasticsearch

$ source /etc/profies

When attempting to start via systemd, ES crashed  
After looking into elasticsearch.log, i did:

# mkdir -p /usr/share/elasticsearch/data/nodes

# chmod 777 /usr/share/elasticsearch/data/nodes

Which got the whole thing **up and running**.  
I'm also completely new to ES and feel a bit clueless whether it's an ES or packaging issue.

---

<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:** [December 23, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-elasticsearch-service/108800/6 "2017-12-23T18:12:15Z")

</div>

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