Install Elasticsearch with .zip on Windows

Self Managed

Elasticsearch can be installed on Windows using the Windows .zip archive. This comes with a elasticsearch-service.bat command which will set up 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.

The latest stable version of Elasticsearch can be found on the Download Elasticsearch page. Other versions can be found on the Past Releases page.

Before you install Elasticsearch, do the following:

• Review the supported operating systems. Elasticsearch is tested on the listed platforms, but it is possible that it will work on other platforms too.
• Configure your operating system using the Important system configuration guidelines.

Download the .zip archive for Elasticsearch 9.0.0 from: https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-9.0.0-windows-x86_64.zip

Unzip it with your favorite unzip tool. This will create a folder called elasticsearch-<version>, 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-9.0.0

Some 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 features to create the following indices:

action.auto_create_index: .monitoring*,.watches,.triggered_watches,.watcher-history*,.ml*

You have several options for starting Elasticsearch:

• Run from the command line
• Run the node to be enrolled in an existing cluster
• Install and run as a service

You can run Elasticsearch from the command line, or install and run Elasticsearch as a service.

Run the following command to start Elasticsearch from the command line:

.\bin\elasticsearch.bat

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 you start Elasticsearch for the first time, the following security configuration occurs automatically:

• Certificates and keys for TLS are generated for the transport and HTTP layers.
• The TLS configuration settings are written to elasticsearch.yml.
• A password is generated for the elastic user.
• An enrollment token is generated for Kibana, which is valid for 30 minutes.

You can then start Kibana and enter the enrollment token. This token automatically applies the security settings from your Elasticsearch cluster, authenticates to Elasticsearch with the built-in kibana service account, and writes the security configuration to kibana.yml.

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. For 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.

To learn how to reset this password, refer to Set passwords for native and built-in users in self-managed clusters.

Elasticsearch loads its configuration from the following location by default:

%ES_HOME%\config\elasticsearch.yml

The format of this config file is explained in Configure 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

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.

1. 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.

2. 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
   

3. Repeat the previous step for any new nodes that you want to enroll.

You can install Elasticsearch as a service that runs in the background or starts automatically at boot time without user interaction.

1. 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-9.0.0\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.
   

   ES_JAVA_HOME is the installation directory of the desired JVM to run the service under. You can change this value using an environment variable.

   Note

   While a JRE can be used for the Elasticsearch service, its use is discouraged and using a JRE will trigger a warning. Use is discouraged due to its use of a client VM, as opposed to a server JVM which offers better performance for long-running applications.

2. Start Elasticsearch as a service. When Elasticsearch starts, authentication is enabled by default:

   C:\Program Files\elasticsearch-9.0.0\bin>bin\elasticsearch-service.bat start
   

   Note

   TLS is not enabled or configured when you start Elasticsearch as a service.

3. 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-9.0.0\bin>\bin\elasticsearch-reset-password -u elastic
   

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-9.0.0\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:

You can customize the service settings before installation using environment variables, or after installation using the Manager GUI.

elasticsearch-service.bat relies on Apache Commons Daemon project to install the service. Environment variables set prior to the service installation are copied and will be used during the service lifecycle. This means any changes made to them after the installation will not be picked up unless the service is reinstalled.

elasticsearch-service.bat manager

• 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 manager GUI.

• 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.

• 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. Upgrading across JVM types (e.g. JRE versus SE) is not supported, and requires the service to be reinstalled.

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 ^ 1
-u elastic:$ELASTIC_PASSWORD https://localhost:9200 2

1. --cacert: Path to the generated http_ca.crt certificate for the HTTP layer.
2. Ensure that you use https in your call, or the request will fail.

The call returns a response like this:

{
  "name" : "Cp8oag6",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
  "cluster_uuid" : "AT69_T_DTp-1qgIJlatQqA",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "9.0.0-SNAPSHOT",
    "build_type" : "tar",
    "build_hash" : "f27399d",
    "build_flavor" : "default",
    "build_date" : "2016-03-30T09:51:41.449Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "10.0.0",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "1.2.3"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

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 {{es}} security auto-configuration HTTP CA.

issuer= /CN={{es}} 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.

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.