How to use the official docker elasticsearch container? - elasticsearch

Question

I have the following Dockerfile:
FROM docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:5.4.0
RUN elasticsearch
EXPOSE 80
I think the 3rd line is never reached.
When I try to access the dockercontainer from my local machine through:
172.17.0.2:9300
I get nothing, what am I missing? I want to access elasticsearch from the local host machine.

Answer 1

I recommend using docker-compose (which makes lot of things much easier) with following configuration.
Configuration (for development)
Configuration starts 3 services: elastic itself and extra utilities
for development like kibana and head plugin (these could be omitted, if you don't need them).
In the same directory you will need three files:
docker-compose.yml
elasticsearch.yml
kibana.yml
With following contents:
docker-compose.yml
version: '2'
services:
elasticsearch:
image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:5.4.0
container_name: elasticsearch_540
environment:
- http.host=0.0.0.0
- transport.host=0.0.0.0
- "ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms1g -Xmx1g"
volumes:
- esdata:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
- ./elasticsearch.yml:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.yml
ports:
- 9200:9200
- 9300:9300
ulimits:
memlock:
soft: -1
hard: -1
nofile:
soft: 65536
hard: 65536
mem_limit: 2g
cap_add:
- IPC_LOCK
kibana:
image: docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:5.4.0
container_name: kibana_540
environment:
- SERVER_HOST=0.0.0.0
volumes:
- ./kibana.yml:/usr/share/kibana/config/kibana.yml
ports:
- 5601:5601
headPlugin:
image: mobz/elasticsearch-head:5
container_name: head_540
ports:
- 9100:9100
volumes:
esdata:
driver: local
elasticsearch.yml
cluster.name: "chimeo-docker-cluster"
node.name: "chimeo-docker-single-node"
network.host: 0.0.0.0
http.cors.enabled: true
http.cors.allow-origin: "*"
http.cors.allow-headers: "Authorization"
kibana.yml
server.name: kibana
server.host: "0"
elasticsearch.url: http://elasticsearch:9200
elasticsearch.username: elastic
elasticsearch.password: changeme
xpack.monitoring.ui.container.elasticsearch.enabled: true
Running
With above three files in the same directory and that directory set as current working directory you do (could require sudo, depends how you have your docker-compose set up):
docker-compose up
It will start up and you will see logs from three different services: elasticsearch_540, kibana_540 and head_540.
After initial start up you will have your elastic cluster available for http under 9200 and for tcp under 9300. Validate with following curl if the cluster started up:
curl -u elastic:changeme http://localhost:9200/_cat/health
Then you can view and play with your cluster using either kibana (with credentials elastic / changeme):
http://localhost:5601/
or head plugin:
http://localhost:9100/?base_uri=http://localhost:9200&auth_user=elastic&auth_password=changeme

Answer 2

Your container is auto exiting because of insufficient virtual memory, by default to run an elastic search container your memory should be a min of 262144 but if you run this command sysctl vm.max_map_countand see it will be around 65530. Please increase your virtual memory count by using this command sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144 and run the container again docker run IMAGE IDthen you should have your container running and you should be able to access elastic search at port 9200 or 9300
edit : check this link https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.0/vm-max-map-count.html#vm-max-map-count

Answer 3

Best would be to follow the official elasticsearch documentation which has a nice section on single node elasticsearch cluster Also running a multi-node elasticsearch cluster using docker-compose.
Please refer to version specific documentation, which can be accessed in the version drop-down present in elasticsearch official documentation.