Server Configuration

Edit /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml to listen to the outside address

network.host: <outside IP address>

For automatic start/stop I created /etc/init.d/elasticsearch like

#!/bin/sh
# kFreeBSD do not accept scripts as interpreters, using #!/bin/sh and sourcing.
if [ true != "$INIT_D_SCRIPT_SOURCED" ] ; then
    set "$0" "$@"; INIT_D_SCRIPT_SOURCED=true . /lib/init/init-d-script
fi
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          elasticsearch
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start ElastichSearch deamon
# Description:       Start ElastichSearch deamon
#                    This script starts a
#                    single forking daemon capable of writing a pid
#                    file.  
### END INIT INFO

# Author: Hans de Ridder <hans@deridder.it>
#

if [ `id -nu` != 'elasticsearch' ]
then
 su elasticsearch $0 $*
 exit
fi 

DESC="ElasticSearch engine"
DAEMON="/opt/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch"
DAEMON_ARGS="-d"

Now you can start by service elasticsearch start. Stopping is not implemented in this script.

In /etc/rc5.d do ln -s ../init.d/elasticsearch S02elasticsearch

Troubleshooting

curl http://localhost:9200/_aliases?pretty=true: List the indexes in elasticsearch
curl -XDELETE http://localhost:9200/<indexname>*/: Remove all indexes where name starts with <indexname>

Some endpoints on http://<server>:9200

/: Version information
/_aliases: All available indices
/<indexname>

Problem

I needed a newer version of Elasticsearch [1] after an upgrade to mediawiki 1.43 and bluntly followed the instructions for that. It appeared I upgraded the software from version 6.8. to 8.17 and that is not supported. Consequently it refused to start. In the logs it report:

Caused by: org.elasticsearch.gateway.CorruptStateException: Format version is not supported. Upgrading to \[8.17.1\] is only supported from version \[7.17.0\].

Results from duckduckgo[2] told me downgrading is not possible. That may be true from a running version, mine has never run on v8, I managed to downgrade to v7 like this.

Configure apt to have the 7.x repository

cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d
echo deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/elasticsearch-keyring.gpg] https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main > elastic-7.x.list
apt install elasticsearch=7.10.2

This puts the software back, starting is not possible due to configuration issues. Restore /etc/elasticsearch from a backup.

Still no luck the logfile has:

[ERROR][o.e.b.Bootstrap          ] [elast] node validation exception
[1] bootstrap checks failed. You must address the points described in the following [1] lines before starting Elasticsearch.
bootstrap check failure [1] of [1]: the default discovery settings are unsuitable for production use; at least one of [discovery.seed_hosts,  discovery.seed_providers, cluster.initial_master_nodes] must be configured

In /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml I added

cluster.initial_master_nodes: ["IP of my node"]

Note that I run a single elasticsearch server only I guess this would work for other configuration too but did not test that

Now it starts.

Make sure to have the v8 repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.d and an upgrade to that is possible:

apt update
apt full-upgrade

Unfortunately now it again does not start as:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot start this node because it holds metadata for indices with version [6.8.23] with which this node of version [8.17.1] is incompatible. Revert this node to version [7.17.27] and delete any indices with versions earlier than [7.0.0] before upgrading to version [8.17.1]. If all such indices have already been deleted, revert this node to version [7.17.27] and wait for it to join the cluster to clean up any older indices from its metadata.

As mediawiki Cirrussearch[3] is working I decided to stay on v7 for now.

Preventing it

Tell apt not upgrade elasticsearch: apt-mark hold elasticsearch
Install a specific version: apt install elasticsearch=7.10.2

Fixing it

Trying to clear the entire database for a fresh start after the upgrade to version 8

Remove everytrhing under /var/lib/elasticsearch
In /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml add _aliases?pretty=true

Now elasticsearch start with a number of error messages, the search continues.

Elasticsearch

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