--- title: Start a single-node cluster in Docker description: Use Docker commands to start a single-node Elasticsearch cluster for development or testing. You can then run additional Docker commands to add nodes... url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/deploy-manage/deploy/self-managed/install-elasticsearch-docker-basic products: - Elastic Stack - Elasticsearch - Kibana applies_to: - Self-managed Elastic deployments: Generally available --- # Start a single-node cluster in Docker Use Docker commands to start a single-node Elasticsearch cluster for development or testing. You can then run additional Docker commands to add nodes to the test cluster or run Kibana. - If you just want to test Elasticsearch in local development, refer to [Run Elasticsearch locally](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/deploy-manage/deploy/self-managed/local-development-installation-quickstart). Note that this setup is not suitable for production environments. - This setup doesn’t run multiple Elasticsearch nodes or Kibana by default. To create a multi-node cluster with Kibana, use Docker Compose instead. See [Start a multi-node cluster with Docker Compose](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/deploy-manage/deploy/self-managed/install-elasticsearch-docker-compose). ## Hardened Docker images You can also use the hardened [Wolfi](https://wolfi.dev/) image for additional security. Using Wolfi images requires Docker version 20.10.10 or higher. To use the Wolfi image, append `-wolfi` to the image tag in the Docker command. For example:

```sh docker pull docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-wolfi:9.3.2 ```

```sh docker pull docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-wolfi: ``` You can download and install a specific version of the Elastic Stack by replacing `` with the version number you want. For example, you can replace `` with 9.0.0.

## Start a single-node cluster 1. Install Docker. Visit [Get Docker](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/) to install Docker for your environment. If using Docker Desktop, make sure to allocate at least 4GB of memory. You can adjust memory usage in Docker Desktop by going to **Settings > Resources**. 2. Create a new docker network. ```sh docker network create elastic ``` 3. Pull the Elasticsearch Docker image.

```sh docker pull docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:9.3.2 ```

Replace `` with the Elastic Stack version number you want. For example, you can replace `` with 9.0.0. You'll use this same version number throughout this tutorial. ```sh docker pull docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch: ```

4. Optional: Install [Cosign](https://docs.sigstore.dev/cosign/system_config/installation/) for your environment. Then use Cosign to verify the Elasticsearch image’s signature.

```sh wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/cosign.pub cosign verify --key cosign.pub docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:9.3.2 ``` The `cosign` command prints the check results and the signature payload in JSON format: ```sh Verification for docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:9.3.2 -- The following checks were performed on each of these signatures: - The cosign claims were validated - Existence of the claims in the transparency log was verified offline - The signatures were verified against the specified public key ```

Replace `` with the version of the Docker image you downloaded. ```sh wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/cosign.pub cosign verify --key cosign.pub docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch: ``` The `cosign` command prints the check results and the signature payload in JSON format: ```sh Verification for docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch: -- The following checks were performed on each of these signatures: - The cosign claims were validated - Existence of the claims in the transparency log was verified offline - The signatures were verified against the specified public key ```

5. Start an Elasticsearch container.

```sh docker run --name es01 --net elastic -p 9200:9200 -it -m 1GB docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:9.3.2 ``` Use the `-m` flag to set a memory limit for the container. This removes the need to [manually set the JVM size](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/deploy-manage/deploy/self-managed/install-elasticsearch-docker-prod#docker-set-heap-size). Machine learning features such as [semantic search with ELSER](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/solutions/search/semantic-search/semantic-search-elser-ingest-pipelines) require a larger container with more than 1GB of memory. If you intend to use the machine learning capabilities, then start the container with this command: ```sh docker run --name es01 --net elastic -p 9200:9200 -it -m 6GB -e "xpack.ml.use_auto_machine_memory_percent=true" docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:9.3.2 ``` The command prints the `elastic` user password and an enrollment token for Kibana.

Use the same Elastic Stack version number as the Docker image you pulled earlier and replace `` with it. ```sh docker run --name es01 --net elastic -p 9200:9200 -it -m 1GB docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch: ``` Use the `-m` flag to set a memory limit for the container. This removes the need to [manually set the JVM size](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/deploy-manage/deploy/self-managed/install-elasticsearch-docker-prod#docker-set-heap-size). Machine learning features such as [semantic search with ELSER](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/solutions/search/semantic-search/semantic-search-elser-ingest-pipelines) require a larger container with more than 1GB of memory. If you intend to use the machine learning capabilities, then start the container with this command: ```sh docker run --name es01 --net elastic -p 9200:9200 -it -m 6GB -e "xpack.ml.use_auto_machine_memory_percent=true" docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch: ``` The command prints the `elastic` user password and an enrollment token for Kibana.

6. Copy the generated `elastic` password and enrollment token. These credentials are only shown when you start Elasticsearch for the first time. You can regenerate the credentials using the following commands. ```sh docker exec -it es01 /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-reset-password -u elastic docker exec -it es01 /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token -s kibana ``` We recommend storing the `elastic` password as an environment variable in your shell. Example: ```sh export ELASTIC_PASSWORD="your_password" ``` 7. Copy the `http_ca.crt` SSL certificate from the container to your local machine. ```sh docker cp es01:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs/http_ca.crt . ``` 8. Make a REST API call to Elasticsearch to ensure the Elasticsearch container is running. ```sh curl --cacert http_ca.crt -u elastic:$ELASTIC_PASSWORD https://localhost:9200 ``` ## Add more nodes 1. Use an existing node to generate a enrollment token for the new node. ```sh docker exec -it es01 /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token -s node ``` The enrollment token is valid for 30 minutes. 2. Start a new Elasticsearch container. Include the enrollment token as an environment variable.

```sh docker run -e ENROLLMENT_TOKEN="" --name es02 --net elastic -it -m 1GB docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:9.3.2 ```

Use the same Elastic Stack version number as the Docker image you pulled earlier and replace `` with it. ```sh docker run -e ENROLLMENT_TOKEN="" --name es02 --net elastic -it -m 1GB docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch: ```

3. Call the [cat nodes API](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/elasticsearch/operation/operation-cat-nodes) to verify the node was added to the cluster. ```sh curl --cacert http_ca.crt -u elastic:$ELASTIC_PASSWORD https://localhost:9200/_cat/nodes ``` ## Run Kibana 1. Pull the Kibana Docker image.

```sh docker pull docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:9.3.2 ```

Use the same Elastic Stack version number as the Docker image you pulled earlier and replace `` with it. ```sh docker pull docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana: ```

2. Optional: Verify the Kibana image’s signature.

```sh wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/cosign.pub cosign verify --key cosign.pub docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:9.3.2 ```

Use the same Elastic Stack version number as the Docker image you pulled earlier and replace `` with it. ```sh wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/cosign.pub cosign verify --key cosign.pub docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana: ```

3. Start a Kibana container.

```sh docker run --name kib01 --net elastic -p 5601:5601 docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:9.3.2 ```

Use the same Elastic Stack version number as the Docker image you pulled earlier and replace `` with it. ```sh docker run --name kib01 --net elastic -p 5601:5601 docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana: ```

4. When Kibana starts, it outputs a unique generated link to the terminal. To access Kibana, open this link in a web browser. 5. In your browser, enter the enrollment token that was generated when you started Elasticsearch. To regenerate the token, run: ```sh docker exec -it es01 /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token -s kibana ``` 6. Log in to Kibana as the `elastic` user with the password that was generated when you started Elasticsearch. To regenerate the password, run: ```sh docker exec -it es01 /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-reset-password -u elastic ``` ## Remove containers To remove the containers and their network, run: ```sh # Remove the Elastic network docker network rm elastic # Remove Elasticsearch containers docker rm es01 docker rm es02 # Remove the Kibana container docker rm kib01 ``` ## Next steps You now have a test Elasticsearch environment set up. Before you start serious development or go into production with Elasticsearch, review the [requirements and recommendations](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/deploy-manage/deploy/self-managed/install-elasticsearch-docker-prod) to apply when running Elasticsearch in Docker in production.