Not able to start elastic search service

Question

I am trying to start the Elastic Search service on a Windows 2008 R2 server, but it's failing to start. It had previously been running for several months without issue.

In services, I get the message:

"Windows could not start the Elasticsearch 1.7.2 (ELASTIC_POC) on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non_Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service specific error code 1."

Event log was very unhelpful, showing the following error:

"The Elasticsearch 1.7.2 (ELASTIC_POC) service entered the stopped state."

"The Elasticsearch 1.7.2 (ELASTIC_POC) service terminated with service-specific error Incorrect function.."

I do get more information in Elastic Search own log files however:

[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [info]  [ 3988] Running 'ELASTIC_POC' Service...
[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [info]  [ 3760] Starting service...
[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [error] [ 3760] Failed creating java C:\Progra~2\Java\jre1.8.0_60\bin\client\jvm.dll
[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [error] [ 3760] The system cannot find the path specified.
[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [error] [ 3760] ServiceStart returned 1
[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [error] [ 3760] The system cannot find the path specified.
[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [info]  [ 3988] Run service finished.
[2016-03-30 10:47:22] [info]  [ 3988] Commons Daemon procrun finished

Checking C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_60, it only contains a folder named "lib" (which is empty). There is a "jre1.8.0_73" folder that has several files, "including \bin\client\jvm.dll"

How can I either make Elastic Search use the later Java release, or bring back the contents for the jre1.8.0_60 folder? I can't seem to find (a safe to download) installer for this..

Any help greatly appreciated.

C:\Progra~2\Java\jre1.8.0_73 although I did update this (in Environment settings) before seeing your message.. I am still getting the same error (I rebooted server to be sure) — mp3duck, Mar 30 '16 at 10:18
you should accept Brian Webster's answer as the correct one. — Tamb, Oct 15 '18 at 21:57

score 33 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 22 '17 at 18:11

33

There is a very high probability that your Java Runtime Environment was auto-updated.

This will break Elastic Search because you have an environment variable called JAVA_HOME that is now pointed at the wrong location.

First, go into program files / java and find the new folder of JRE. It is probably a later version number. Example: instead of jre1.8.0_73, perhaps jre1.8.090 or some higher number tacked onto the end.

Update your JAVA_HOME environment variable accordingly.

Then, after taking appropriate backups of your elastic search files, in an admin-enabled command prompt, navigate to your elastic search bin folder.

type the following commands

 service remove
 service install

Then, you will probably want to go into services.msc and switch the service from "manual start" to "automatic" or "automatic delayed"

One might think that reinstalling the service after updating the JAVA_HOME environment variable would be unnecessary, but it was necessary for my installation.

answered Jan 22 '17 at 18:11

Brian Webster

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4

This was precisely my problem. Thanks. – Jim G. Jan 23 '17 at 15:07
am not able to remove the service using powershell, can you please help @Brian – user3067170 Dec 18 '18 at 21:48
@user3067170 Can you try right-clicking cmd.exe and "run as administrator" and see if that works? – Brian Webster Dec 18 '18 at 21:52
1

@user3067170 I would not use powershell, I would use cmd.exe instead. What error do you get? – Brian Webster Dec 20 '18 at 21:21
If you JAVA_HOME is set to an unsupported version, it won't start. See - https://www.elastic.co/support/matrix#matrix_jvm – Kunal Aug 16 '20 at 06:11

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '16 at 10:28

Resolved, by install service again..

Open

{path-to-elastic-search}\bin\

in command prompt,

and run

service install

It would not allow me to run

service remove, so I now how two elastic search services listed, however, this is a test server, so that's fine.

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 13 '18 at 14:05

For me it was caused by a problem in my registry after updating Java. It seemed that older versions of the service installer hardcoded the java path in the registry keys while they should depend on the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

Locate the following key in your registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Apache Software Foundation\Procrun 2.0\elasticsearch-service-x64\Parameters\Java\Jvm. If it looks like a hardcoded path to jvm.dll, change the value to %JAVA_HOME%\bin\server\jvm.dll and try starting the service.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 11 '19 at 17:57

Just do the following steps step by step and then your elastic search installation will work: advanced system setting >> Environment variables >> System Variables >> path >> New and then insert your latest java jdk path. like this: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.3\bin

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 03 '21 at 07:24

2

For me the solution was creating directory \AppData\Local\Temp\elasticsearch. Apparently something during Windows Update has deleted this folder for some reason.

edited Dec 03 '21 at 07:24

Phil Dukhov

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answered Dec 01 '21 at 12:40

Krzysztof W

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1

Yes a recent Win10 update got me. Never would have figured this out. – Jeremy L Oct 10 '22 at 19:26

Not able to start elastic search service

5 Answers5