Install Elasticsearch with Windows MSI Installeredit
This functionality is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.
Elasticsearch can be installed on Windows using the .msi package. This can
install Elasticsearch as a Windows service or allow it to be run manually using
the included elasticsearch.exe executable.
Elasticsearch has historically been installed on Windows using the .zip archive.
You can continue using the .zip approach if you prefer.
This package is free to use under the Elastic license. It contains open source and free commercial features and access to paid commercial features. Start a 30-day trial to try out all of the paid commercial features. See the Subscriptions page for information about Elastic license levels.
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 .msi packageedit
Download the .msi package for Elasticsearch v7.7.1 from https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi
Install using the graphical user interface (GUI)edit
Double-click the downloaded .msi package to launch a GUI wizard that will guide you through the
installation process. You can view help on any step by clicking the ? button, which reveals an
aside panel with additional information for each input:
Within the first screen, select the directory for the installation. In addition, select directories for where data, logs and configuration will be placed or use the default locations:
Then select whether to install as a service or start Elasticsearch manually as needed. When installing as a service, you can also configure the Windows account to run the service with, whether the service should be started after installation and the Windows startup behaviour:
When selecting a Windows account to run the service with, be sure that the chosen account has sufficient privileges to access the installation and other deployment directories chosen. Also ensure the account is able to run Windows services.
Common configuration settings are exposed within the Configuration section, allowing the cluster name, node name and roles to be set, in addition to memory and network settings:
A list of common plugins that can be downloaded and installed as part of the installation, with the option to configure an HTTPS proxy through which to download these plugins.
Ensure the installation machine has access to the internet and that any corporate firewalls in place are configured to allow downloads from artifacts.elastic.co:
As of version 6.3.0, X-Pack is now bundled by default. The final step allows a choice of the type of license to install, in addition to security configuration and built-in user configuration:
X-Pack includes a choice of a Trial or Basic license. A Trial license is valid for 30 days, after which you can obtain one of the available subscriptions. The Basic license is free and perpetual. Consult the available subscriptions for further details on which features are available under which license.
After clicking the install button, the installation will begin:
…and will indicate when it has been successfully installed:
Install using the command lineedit
The .msi can also install Elasticsearch using the command line. The simplest installation
using the same defaults as the GUI is achieved by first navigating to the download directory,
then running:
msiexec.exe /i elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn
By default, msiexec.exe does not wait for the installation process to complete, since it runs in the
Windows subsystem. To wait on the process to finish and ensure that %ERRORLEVEL% is set
accordingly, it is recommended to use start /wait to create a process and wait for it to exit
start /wait msiexec.exe /i elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn
As with any MSI installation package, a log file for the installation process can be found
within the %TEMP% directory, with a randomly generated name adhering to the format
MSI<random>.LOG. The path to a log file can be supplied using the /l command line argument
start /wait msiexec.exe /i elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn /l install.log
Supported Windows Installer command line arguments can be viewed using
msiexec.exe /help
…or by consulting the Windows Installer SDK Command-Line Options.
Command line optionsedit
All settings exposed within the GUI are also available as command line arguments (referred to
as properties within Windows Installer documentation) that can be passed to msiexec.exe:
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The installation directory. The final directory in the path must
be the version of Elasticsearch.
Defaults to |
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The directory in which to store your data.
Defaults to |
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The directory in which to store your configuration.
Defaults to |
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The directory in which to store your logs.
Defaults to |
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Whether the data, configuration and logs directories
should be created under the installation directory. Defaults to |
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Whether Elasticsearch is installed and configured as a Windows Service.
Defaults to |
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Whether the Windows Service is started after installation finishes.
Defaults to |
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Whether the Windows Service is started when Windows is started.
Defaults to |
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Whether the Windows service runs under the LocalSystem Account.
Defaults to |
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Whether the Windows service runs under the NetworkService Account. Defaults
to |
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Whether the Windows service runs under a specified existing account. Defaults
to |
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The username for the account under which the Windows service runs. Defaults to |
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The password for the account under which the Windows service runs. Defaults to |
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The name of the cluster. Defaults to |
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The name of the node. Defaults to |
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Whether Elasticsearch is configured as a master node. Defaults to |
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Whether Elasticsearch is configured as a data node. Defaults to |
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Whether Elasticsearch is configured as an ingest node. Defaults to |
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The amount of memory to allocate to the JVM heap for Elasticsearch.
Defaults to |
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Whether |
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A comma separated list of hosts in the form |
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The minimum number of master-eligible nodes that must be visible
in order to form a cluster. Defaults to |
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The hostname or IP address to bind the node to and publish (advertise) this
host to other nodes in the cluster. Defaults to |
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The port to use for exposing Elasticsearch APIs over HTTP. Defaults to |
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The port to use for internal communication between nodes within the cluster.
Defaults to |
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A comma separated list of the plugins to download and install as part of the
installation. Defaults to |
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The proxy host to use to download plugins over HTTPS. Defaults to |
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The proxy port to use to download plugins over HTTPS. Defaults to |
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The proxy host to use to download plugins over HTTP. Defaults to |
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The proxy port to use to download plugins over HTTP. Defaults to |
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The type of license to install, either |
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When installing with a |
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When installing with a |
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When installing with a |
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When installing with a |
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When installing with a |
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When installing with a |
To pass a value, simply append the property name and value using the format
<PROPERTYNAME>="<VALUE>" to the installation command. For example, to use a
different installation directory to the default one:
start /wait msiexec.exe /i elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn INSTALLDIR="C:\Custom Install Directory{version}"
Consult the Windows Installer SDK Command-Line Options for additional rules related to values containing quotation marks.
Enable automatic creation of system indicesedit
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.
Running Elasticsearch from the command lineedit
Once installed, Elasticsearch can be started from the command line, if not installed as a service and configured to start when installation completes, as follows:
.\bin\elasticsearch.exe
The command line terminal will display output similar to the following:
By default, Elasticsearch runs in the foreground, prints its logs to STDOUT in addition
to the <cluster name>.log file within LOGSDIRECTORY, and can be stopped by pressing Ctrl-C.
Configuring Elasticsearch on the command lineedit
Elasticsearch loads its configuration from the %ES_PATH_CONF%\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.exe -E cluster.name=my_cluster -E node.name=node_1
Values that contain spaces must be surrounded with quotes. For instance -E path.logs="C:\My Logs\logs".
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.
Checking that Elasticsearch is runningedit
You can test that your Elasticsearch node is running by sending an HTTP
request to port 9200 on localhost:
GET /
which should give you a response something like this:
{
"name" : "Cp8oag6",
"cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
"cluster_uuid" : "AT69_T_DTp-1qgIJlatQqA",
"version" : {
"number" : "7.7.1",
"build_flavor" : "default",
"build_type" : "tar",
"build_hash" : "f27399d",
"build_date" : "2016-03-30T09:51:41.449Z",
"build_snapshot" : false,
"lucene_version" : "8.5.1",
"minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3",
"minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3"
},
"tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}
Installing Elasticsearch as a Service on Windowsedit
Elasticsearch can be installed as a service to run in the background or start automatically at boot time without any user interaction. This can be achieved upon installation using the following command line options
-
INSTALLASSERVICE=true -
STARTAFTERINSTALL=true -
STARTWHENWINDOWSSTARTS=true
Once installed, Elasticsearch will appear within the Services control panel:
and can be stopped and restarted from within the control panel, or from the command line using:
with Command Prompt:
sc.exe stop Elasticsearch sc.exe start Elasticsearch
with PowerShell:
Get-Service Elasticsearch | Stop-Service Get-Service Elasticsearch | Start-Service
Changes can be made to jvm.options and elasticsearch.yml configuration files to configure the
service after installation. Most changes (like JVM settings) will require a restart of the
service in order to take effect.
Upgrade using the graphical user interface (GUI)edit
The .msi package supports upgrading an installed version of Elasticsearch to a newer
version. The upgrade process through the GUI handles upgrading all
installed plugins as well as retaining both your data and configuration.
Downloading and double-clicking on a newer version of the .msi package will launch the GUI wizard.
The first step will list the read-only properties from the previous installation:
The next step allows certain configuration options to be changed:
Finally, the plugins step allows currently installed plugins to be upgraded or removed, and for plugins not currently installed, to be downloaded and installed:
Upgrade using the command lineedit
The .msi can also upgrade Elasticsearch using the command line.
A command line upgrade requires passing the same command line properties as used at first install time; the Windows Installer does not remember these properties.
For example, if you originally installed with the command line options PLUGINS="ingest-geoip" and
LOCKMEMORY="true", then you must pass these same values when performing an
upgrade from the command line.
The exception to this is the INSTALLDIR parameter (if originally specified), which must be a different directory to the
current installation.
If setting INSTALLDIR, the final directory in the path must be the version of Elasticsearch e.g.
C:\Program Files\Elastic\Elasticsearch\7.7.1
The simplest upgrade, assuming Elasticsearch was installed using all defaults, is achieved by first navigating to the download directory, then running:
start /wait msiexec.exe /i elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn
Similar to the install process, a path to a log file for the upgrade process can
be passed using the /l command line argument
start /wait msiexec.exe /i elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn /l upgrade.log
Uninstall using Add/Remove Programsedit
The .msi package handles uninstallation of all directories and files added as part of installation.
Uninstallation will remove all contents created as part of installation, except for data, config or logs directories. It is recommended that you make a copy of your data directory before upgrading or consider using the snapshot API.
MSI installer packages do not provide a GUI for uninstallation. An installed program can be uninstalled
by pressing the Windows key and typing add or remove programs to open the system settings.
Once opened, find the Elasticsearch installation within the list of installed applications, click
and choose Uninstall:
This will launch the uninstallation process.
Uninstall using the command lineedit
Uninstallation can also be performed from the command line by navigating to the directory
containing the .msi package and running:
start /wait msiexec.exe /x elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn
Similar to the install process, a path to a log file for the uninstallation process can
be passed using the /l command line argument
start /wait msiexec.exe /x elasticsearch-7.7.1.msi /qn /l uninstall.log
Next stepsedit
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.