Elasticsearch can be installed on Windows using the Windows
.zip
archive. This
comes with a
elasticsearch-service.bat
command which will setup Elasticsearch to run as a
service.
This package contains both free and subscription features.
Start a 30-day trial
to try out all of the features.
On Windows the Elasticsearch machine learning feature requires the Microsoft Universal
C Runtime library. This is built into Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 and more
recent versions of Windows. For older versions of Windows it can be installed
via Windows Update, or from a
separate download
.
If you cannot install the Microsoft Universal C Runtime library you can still
use the rest of Elasticsearch if you disable the machine learning feature.
The latest stable version of Elasticsearch can be found on the
Download Elasticsearch
page.
Other versions can be found on the
Past Releases page
.
Elasticsearch includes a bundled version of
OpenJDK
from the JDK maintainers (GPLv2+CE). To use your own version of Java,
see the
JVM version requirements
Download the
.zip
archive for Elasticsearch 8.14.1 from:
https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-8.14.1-windows-x86_64.zip
Unzip it with your favorite unzip tool. This will create a folder called
elasticsearch-8.14.1
, which we will refer to as
%ES_HOME%
. In a terminal
window,
cd
to the
%ES_HOME%
directory, for instance:
cd C:\Program Files\elasticsearch-8.14.1
Some commercial features automatically create indices within Elasticsearch.
By default, Elasticsearch is configured to allow automatic index creation, and no
additional steps are required. However, if you have disabled automatic index
creation in Elasticsearch, you must configure
action.auto_create_index
in
elasticsearch.yml
to allow
the commercial features to create the following indices:
action.auto_create_index: .monitoring*,.watches,.triggered_watches,.watcher-history*,.ml*
If you are using
Logstash
or
Beats
then you will most likely
require additional index names in your
action.auto_create_index
setting, and
the exact value will depend on your local configuration. If you are unsure of
the correct value for your environment, you may consider setting the value to
*
which will allow automatic creation of all indices.
Run the following command to start Elasticsearch from the command line:
.\bin\elasticsearch.bat
When starting Elasticsearch for the first time, security features are enabled and
configured by default. The following security configuration occurs
automatically:
Authentication and authorization are enabled, and a password is generated for
the
elastic
built-in superuser.
Certificates and keys for TLS are generated for the transport and HTTP layer,
and TLS is enabled and configured with these keys and certificates.
An enrollment token is generated for Kibana, which is valid for 30 minutes.
The password for the
elastic
user and the enrollment token for Kibana are
output to your terminal.
We recommend storing the
elastic
password as an environment variable in your shell. Example:
$ELASTIC_PASSWORD = "your_password"
If you have password-protected the Elasticsearch keystore, you will be prompted to
enter the keystore’s password. See
Secure settings
for more details.
By default Elasticsearch prints its logs to the console (
STDOUT
) and to the
<cluster
name>.log
file within the
logs directory
. Elasticsearch logs some
information while it is starting, but after it has finished initializing it
will continue to run in the foreground and won’t log anything further until
something happens that is worth recording. While Elasticsearch is running you can
interact with it through its HTTP interface which is on port
9200
by default.
To stop Elasticsearch, press
Ctrl-C
.
When Elasticsearch starts for the first time, the security auto-configuration process
binds the HTTP layer to
0.0.0.0
, but only binds the transport layer to
localhost. This intended behavior ensures that you can start
a single-node cluster with security enabled by default without any additional
configuration.
Before enrolling a new node, additional actions such as binding to an address
other than
localhost
or satisfying bootstrap checks are typically necessary
in production clusters. During that time, an auto-generated enrollment token
could expire, which is why enrollment tokens aren’t generated automatically.
Additionally, only nodes on the same host can join the cluster without
additional configuration. If you want nodes from another host to join your
cluster, you need to set
transport.host
to a
supported value
(such as uncommenting the suggested value of
0.0.0.0
), or an IP address
that’s bound to an interface where other hosts can reach it. Refer to
transport settings
for more
information.
To enroll new nodes in your cluster, create an enrollment token with the
elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token
tool on any existing node in your
cluster. You can then start a new node with the
--enrollment-token
parameter
so that it joins an existing cluster.
In a separate terminal from where Elasticsearch is running, navigate to the directory
where you installed Elasticsearch and run the
elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token
tool
to generate an enrollment token for your new nodes.
bin\elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token -s node
Copy the enrollment token, which you’ll use to enroll new nodes with
your Elasticsearch cluster.
From the installation directory of your new node, start Elasticsearch and pass the
enrollment token with the
--enrollment-token
parameter.
bin\elasticsearch --enrollment-token <enrollment-token>
Elasticsearch automatically generates certificates and keys in the following directory:
config\certs
Repeat the previous step for any new nodes that you want to enroll.
Elasticsearch loads its configuration from the
%ES_HOME%\config\elasticsearch.yml
file by default. The format of this config file is explained in
Configuring Elasticsearch
.
Any settings that can be specified in the config file can also be specified on
the command line, using the
-E
syntax as follows:
.\bin\elasticsearch.bat -Ecluster.name=my_cluster -Enode.name=node_1
Typically, any cluster-wide settings (like
cluster.name
) should be
added to the
elasticsearch.yml
config file, while any node-specific settings
such as
node.name
could be specified on the command line.
You can test that your Elasticsearch node is running by sending an HTTPS request to port
9200
on
localhost
:
curl --cacert %ES_HOME%\config\certs\http_ca.crt -u elastic:$ELASTIC_PASSWORD https://localhost:9200
"name" : "Cp8oag6",
"cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
"cluster_uuid" : "AT69_T_DTp-1qgIJlatQqA",
"version" : {
"number" : "8.14.1",
"build_type" : "tar",
"build_hash" : "f27399d",
"build_flavor" : "default",
"build_date" : "2016-03-30T09:51:41.449Z",
"build_snapshot" : false,
"lucene_version" : "9.10.0",
"minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3",
"minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3"
"tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
You can install Elasticsearch as a service that runs in the background or starts
automatically at boot time without user interaction.
Install Elasticsearch as a service. The name of the service and the value of
ES_JAVA_HOME
will be made available during install:
C:\Program Files\elasticsearch-8.14.1\bin>elasticsearch-service.bat install
Installing service : "elasticsearch-service-x64"
Using ES_JAVA_HOME (64-bit): "C:\jvm\jdk1.8"
The service 'elasticsearch-service-x64' has been installed.
Start Elasticsearch as a service. When Elasticsearch starts, authentication is enabled by
default:
C:\Program Files\elasticsearch-8.14.1\bin>bin\elasticsearch-service.bat start
Generate a password for the
elastic
user with the
elasticsearch-reset-password
tool. The password is output
to the command line.
C:\Program Files\elasticsearch-8.14.1\bin>\bin\elasticsearch-reset-password -u elastic
While a JRE can be used for the Elasticsearch service, due to its use of a client
VM (as opposed to a server JVM which offers better performance for long-running
applications) its usage is discouraged and a warning will be issued.
The system environment variable
ES_JAVA_HOME
should be set to the path
of the JDK installation that you want the service to use. If you upgrade the
JDK, you are not required to the reinstall the service but you must set the
value of the system environment variable
ES_JAVA_HOME
to the path to the new
JDK installation. However, upgrading across JVM types (e.g. JRE versus SE) is
not supported, and does require the service to be reinstalled.
Run the
elasticsearch-service.bat
script in the
bin\
folder to install,
remove, manage, or configure the service and potentially start and stop the
service from the command line.
C:\Program Files\elasticsearch-8.14.1\bin>elasticsearch-service.bat
Usage: elasticsearch-service.bat install|remove|start|stop|manager [SERVICE_ID]
The script requires one parameter (the command to execute), followed by an
optional one indicating the service id (useful when installing multiple
Elasticsearch services).
The commands available are:
Service log directory, defaults to
%ES_HOME%\logs
. Note that this does
not control the path for the Elasticsearch logs; the path for these is set
via the setting
path.logs
in the
elasticsearch.yml
configuration file,
or on the command line.
Configuration file directory (which needs to include
elasticsearch.yml
,
jvm.options
, and
log4j2.properties
files), defaults to
%ES_HOME%\config
.
By default, Elasticsearch automatically sizes JVM heap based on a node’s
roles
and total memory. We recommend this default sizing for most
production environments. If needed, you can override default sizing by manually
setting the heap size.
When installing Elasticsearch on Windows as a service for the first time or running Elasticsearch
from the command line, you can manually
Set the JVM heap size
.
To resize the heap for an already installed service,
use the service manager:
bin\elasticsearch-service.bat manager
.
The service automatically configures a private temporary directory for use
by Elasticsearch when it is running. This private temporary directory is
configured as a sub-directory of the private temporary directory for the user
running the installation. If the service will run under a different user, you
can configure the location of the temporary directory that the service should
use by setting the environment variable
ES_TMPDIR
to the preferred location
before you execute the service installation.
It is also possible to configure the service after it’s been installed using the manager GUI (
elasticsearch-service-mgr.exe
), which offers insight into the installed service, including its status, startup type, JVM, start and stop settings amongst other things. Invoke
elasticsearch-service.bat manager
from the command-line to open the manager window.
Most changes (like JVM settings) made through the manager GUI will require a restart of the service to take affect.
When you start Elasticsearch for the first time, TLS is configured automatically for the
HTTP layer. A CA certificate is generated and stored on disk at:
%ES_HOME%\config\certs\http_ca.crt
The hex-encoded SHA-256 fingerprint of this
certificate is also output to the terminal. Any clients that connect to Elasticsearch,
such as the
Elasticsearch Clients
,
Beats, standalone Elastic Agents, and Logstash must validate that they trust the
certificate that Elasticsearch uses for HTTPS. Fleet Server and Fleet-managed
Elastic Agents are automatically configured to trust the CA certificate.
Other clients can establish trust by using either the fingerprint of the CA
certificate or the CA certificate itself.
If the auto-configuration process already completed, you can still obtain the
fingerprint of the security certificate. You can also copy the CA certificate
to your machine and configure your client to use it.
Copy the fingerprint value that’s output to your terminal when Elasticsearch starts, and
configure your client to use this fingerprint to establish trust when it
connects to Elasticsearch.
If the auto-configuration process already completed, you can still obtain the
fingerprint of the security certificate by running the following command. The
path is to the auto-generated CA certificate for the HTTP layer.
openssl x509 -fingerprint -sha256 -in config/certs/http_ca.crt
The command returns the security certificate, including the fingerprint.
The
issuer
should be
Elasticsearch security auto-configuration HTTP CA
.
issuer= /CN=Elasticsearch security auto-configuration HTTP CA
SHA256 Fingerprint=<fingerprint>
If your library doesn’t support a method of validating the fingerprint, the
auto-generated CA certificate is created in the following directory on each Elasticsearch
node:
%ES_HOME%\config\certs\http_ca.crt
Copy the
http_ca.crt
file to your machine and configure your client to use this
certificate to establish trust when it connects to Elasticsearch.
The
.zip
package is entirely self-contained. All files and directories are,
by default, contained within
%ES_HOME%
— the directory created when
unpacking the archive.
This is very convenient because you don’t have to create any directories to
start using Elasticsearch, and uninstalling Elasticsearch is as easy as
removing the
%ES_HOME%
directory. However, it is advisable to change the
default locations of the config directory, the data directory, and the logs
directory so that you do not delete important data later on.
Binary scripts including
elasticsearch
to start a node
and
elasticsearch-plugin
to install plugins
%ES_HOME%\bin
Configuration files including
elasticsearch.yml
%ES_HOME%\config
ES_PATH_CONF
Generated TLS keys and certificates for the transport and HTTP layer.
%ES_HOME%\config\certs
The location of the data files of each index / shard allocated
on the node.
%ES_HOME%\data
path.data
Log files location.
%ES_HOME%\logs
path.logs
plugins
Plugin files location. Each plugin will be contained in a subdirectory.
%ES_HOME%\plugins
Shared file system repository locations. Can hold multiple locations. A file system repository can be placed in to any subdirectory of any directory specified here.
Not configured
path.repo
You now have a test Elasticsearch environment set up. Before you start
serious development or go into production with Elasticsearch, you must do some additional
setup:
Learn how to
configure Elasticsearch
.
Configure
important Elasticsearch settings
.
Configure
important system settings
.
