ElasticSearch errors on Windows - elasticsearch

Question

I have ElasticSearch installed on Windows (through the MSI package). I installed it to run manually (not as a Window Service). When I run /bin/ElasticSearch.exe I am getting:
C:\Program Files\Elastic\Elasticsearch\6.2.4\bin>elasticsearch.exe
[2018-05-29T20:01:36,112][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ]
[MSEDGEWIN10] initializing ... [2018-05-29T20:01:36,299][INFO ][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ]
[MSEDGEWIN10] using [1] data paths, mounts [[Windows 10 (C:)]], net usable_space [59.3gb], net total_space [97.6gb], types [NTFS] [2018-05-29T20:01:36,299][INFO ][o.e.e.NodeEnvironment ] [MSEDGEWIN10] heap size [1.9gb], compressed ordinary object pointers [true] [2018-05-29T20:01:36,455][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] [MSEDGEWIN10] node name [MSEDGEWIN10], node ID [J5yTqffaR9K43tavP87CIQ] [2018-05-29T20:01:36,455][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] [MSEDGEWIN10] version[6.2.4], pid[6912], build[ccec39f/2018-04-12T20:37:28.497551Z], OS[Windows 10/10.0/amd64], JVM[Oracle Corporation/Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM/1.8.0_171/25.171-b11] [2018-05-29T20:01:36,455][INFO ][o.e.n.Node ] [MSEDGEWIN10] JVM arguments [-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC,
-XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=75, -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly, -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch, -Xss1m, -Djava.awt.headless=true, -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8, -Djna.nosys=true, -XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow, -Dio.netty.noUnsafe=true, -Dio.netty.noKeySetOptimization=true, -Dio.netty.recycler.maxCapacityPerThread=0, -Dlog4j.shutdownHookEnabled=false, -Dlog4j2.disable.jmx=true, -Djava.io.tmpdir=${ES_TMPDIR}, -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError, -Xmx2048m, -Xms2048m, -Delasticsearch, -Des.path.home=C:\Program Files\Elastic\Elasticsearch\6.2.4,
-Des.path.conf=C:\ProgramData\Elastic\Elasticsearch\config] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [aggs-matrix-stats] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [analysis-common] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [ingest-common] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [lang-expression] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [lang-mustache] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [lang-painless] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [mapper-extras] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [parent-join] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [percolator] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [rank-eval] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [reindex] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [repository-url] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [transport-netty4] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] loaded module [tribe] [2018-05-29T20:01:43,752][INFO ][o.e.p.PluginsService ] [MSEDGEWIN10] no plugins loaded [2018-05-29T20:01:54,940][WARN ][o.e.b.ElasticsearchUncaughtExceptionHandler] [MSEDGEWIN10] uncaught exception in thread [main] org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.StartupException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: unknown secure setting [bootstrap.password] please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:125) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:112) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124) ~[elasticsearch-cli-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90) ~[elasticsearch-cli-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:92) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:85) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4] Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: unknown secure setting [bootstrap.password] please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:346) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:310) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:284) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SettingsModule.<init>(SettingsModule.java:134) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:331) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:246) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap$5.<init>(Bootstrap.java:213) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:213) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:323) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:121) ~[elasticsearch-6.2.4.jar:6.2.4]
... 6 more

Answer 1

You can fix this by removing bootstrap.password from the elasticsearch keystore by navigating to the installation home directory and running
bin/elasticsearch-keystore.bat remove bootstrap.password
Elasticsearch will now start when running elasticsearch.exe.
Please open an issue on the Windows Installer GitHub repository to discuss, as bootstrap.password should only be set in the keystore when X-Pack plugin is installed. I would like to understand more about how you installed and what installation parameters were passed, which would be better to discuss by opening a GitHub issue :)

Answer 2

Out of everything in your log, here is the main error:
[2018-05-29T20:01:54,940][WARN ][o.e.b.ElasticsearchUncaughtExceptionHandler] [MSEDGEWIN10] uncaught exception in thread [main] org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.StartupException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: unknown secure setting [bootstrap.password] please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings.
Try to start elasticsearch with the following option:
bin/elasticsearch -E xpack.security.authc.accept_default_password=false
EDIT: This didn't help. Did you do clean install or this is re-installation?
Try to setup passwords manually:
bin/elasticsearch-keystore add "bootstrap.password"
If you do not have any keystore, here is simple how-to:
https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.2/secure-settings.html