vm.max_map_count


Troubleshooting Access Rights and Memory Allocation for Elastic Enterprise Search using Docker Compose

Introduction

Setting up Elastic Enterprise Search using Docker Compose provides a convenient and scalable solution for deploying Elasticsearch’s Enterprise Search. However, during our implementation of this setup, we encountered issues related to access rights and memory allocation. In this blog post, we will walk you through the steps we took to resolve these challenges and successfully configure the system.

Problem: Access Rights

The initial hurdle we encountered was related to access rights when running Elastic Enterprise Search using Docker Compose. While following the official guide provided by Elastic, we realized that certain permissions were causing problems. As a result, we could not access the files and directories required for proper functioning.

Solution: Modifying the YML and Adjusting Access Rights

We modified the YAML file used in the Docker Compose setup to overcome the access rights issue. Specifically, we relocated all volumes to a folder our user owns, ensuring we had complete control and ownership over these files. Additionally, we adjusted the access rights to 777, granting all users full read, write, and execute permissions. Please note that this is used for a development environment that will be destroyed later.

version: '2.2'

services:

  setup:
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION}
    volumes:
      - /home/tux/docker/volumes/es/certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs
    user: "0"
    command: >
      bash -c '
        if [ x${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} == x ]; then
          echo "Set the ELASTIC_PASSWORD environment variable in the .env file";
          exit 1;
        elif [ x${KIBANA_PASSWORD} == x ]; then
          echo "Set the KIBANA_PASSWORD environment variable in the .env file";
          exit 1;
        fi;
        if [ ! -f certs/ca.zip ]; then
          echo "Creating CA";
          bin/elasticsearch-certutil ca --silent --pem -out config/certs/ca.zip;
          unzip config/certs/ca.zip -d config/certs;
        fi;
        if [ ! -f certs/certs.zip ]; then
          echo "Creating certs";
          echo -ne \
          "instances:\n"\
          "  - name: es01\n"\
          "    dns:\n"\
          "      - es01\n"\
          "      - localhost\n"\
          "    ip:\n"\
          "      - 127.0.0.1\n"\
          > config/certs/instances.yml;
          bin/elasticsearch-certutil cert --silent --pem -out config/certs/certs.zip --in config/certs/instances.yml --ca-cert config/certs/ca/ca.crt --ca-key config/certs/ca/ca.key;
          unzip config/certs/certs.zip -d config/certs;
        fi;
        echo "Setting file permissions"
        chown -R root:root config/certs;
        find . -type d -exec chmod 750 \{\} \;;
        find . -type f -exec chmod 640 \{\} \;;
        echo "Waiting for Elasticsearch availability";
        until curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://es01:9200 | grep -q "missing authentication credentials"; do sleep 30; done;
        echo "Setting kibana_system password";
        until curl -s -X POST --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt -u elastic:${ELASTIC_PASSWORD} -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://es01:9200/_security/user/kibana_system/_password -d "{\"password\":\"${KIBANA_PASSWORD}\"}" | grep -q "^{}"; do sleep 10; done;
        echo "All done!";
      '
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "[ -f config/certs/es01/es01.crt ]"]
      interval: 1s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 120

  es01:
    depends_on:
      setup:
        condition: service_healthy
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:${STACK_VERSION}
    volumes:
      - /home/tux/docker/volumes/es/certs:/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certs
      - /home/tux/docker/volumes/es/esdata01:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
    ports:
      - ${ES_PORT}:9200
    environment:
      - node.name=es01
      - cluster.name=${CLUSTER_NAME}
      - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01
      - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=${ELASTIC_PASSWORD}
      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
      - xpack.security.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=certs/es01/es01.key
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=certs/es01/es01.crt
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.verification_mode=certificate
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=certs/es01/es01.key
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=certs/es01/es01.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=certs/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate
      - xpack.license.self_generated.type=${LICENSE}
    mem_limit: ${MEM_LIMIT}
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
    healthcheck:
      test:
        [
            "CMD-SHELL",
            "curl -s --cacert config/certs/ca/ca.crt https://localhost:9200 | grep -q 'missing authentication credentials'",
        ]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 120

  kibana:
    depends_on:
      es01:
        condition: service_healthy
    image: docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:${STACK_VERSION}
    volumes:
      - /home/tux/docker/volumes/es/certs:/usr/share/kibana/config/certs
      - /home/tux/docker/volumes/es/kibanadata:/usr/share/kibana/data
    ports:
      - ${KIBANA_PORT}:5601
    environment:
      - SERVERNAME=kibana
      - ELASTICSEARCH_HOSTS=https://es01:9200
      - ELASTICSEARCH_USERNAME=kibana_system
      - ELASTICSEARCH_PASSWORD=${KIBANA_PASSWORD}
      - ELASTICSEARCH_SSL_CERTIFICATEAUTHORITIES=config/certs/ca/ca.crt
      - ENTERPRISESEARCH_HOST=http://enterprisesearch:${ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_PORT}
      - xpack.reporting.kibanaServer.hostname=localhost
    mem_limit: ${MEM_LIMIT}
    healthcheck:
      test:
        [
            "CMD-SHELL",
            "curl -s -I http://localhost:5601 | grep -q 'HTTP/1.1 302 Found'",
        ]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 120

  enterprisesearch:
    depends_on:
      es01:
        condition: service_healthy
      kibana:
        condition: service_healthy
    image: docker.elastic.co/enterprise-search/enterprise-search:${STACK_VERSION}
    volumes:
      - /home/tux/docker/volumes/es/certs:/usr/share/enterprise-search/config/certs
      - /home/tux/docker/volumes/es/enterprisesearchdata:/usr/share/enterprise-search/config
    ports:
      - ${ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_PORT}:3002
    environment:
      - SERVERNAME=enterprisesearch
      - secret_management.encryption_keys=[${ENCRYPTION_KEYS}]
      - allow_es_settings_modification=true
      - elasticsearch.host=https://es01:9200
      - elasticsearch.username=elastic
      - elasticsearch.password=${ELASTIC_PASSWORD}
      - elasticsearch.ssl.enabled=true
      - elasticsearch.ssl.certificate_authority=/usr/share/enterprise-search/config/certs/ca/ca.crt
      - kibana.external_url=http://kibana:5601
    mem_limit: ${MEM_LIMIT}
    healthcheck:
      test:
        [
            "CMD-SHELL",
            "curl -s -I http://localhost:3002 | grep -q 'HTTP/1.1 302 Found'",
        ]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 120

volumes:
  certs:
    driver: local
  enterprisesearchdata:
    driver: local
  esdata01:
    driver: local
  kibanadata:
    driver: local

Problem: Memory Allocation

In addition to the access rights challenge, we also encountered an issue related to memory allocation. The default settings for the virtual memory map count (vm.max_map_count) were insufficient for our requirements, leading to errors during the deployment.

Solution: Increasing Memory Allocation

To address the memory allocation problem, we followed the guide provided by Elastic on how to increase the vm.max_map_count. By executing the command sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144, we set the required value for optimal memory allocation. This adjustment allowed Elastic Enterprise Search to function properly and utilize the necessary resources.

Problem: Version 8 does not deploy correctly and fails to authenticate

When we tried to bring up the docker containers, we got the following problems with access rights:

From ES01:
{"@timestamp":"2023-05-22T05:27:10.294Z", "log.level":"ERROR", "message":"failed to retrieve password hash for reserved user [kibana_system]", "ecs.version": "1.2.0","service.name":"ES_ECS","event.dataset":"elasticsearch.server","process.thread.name":"elasticsearch[es01][transport_worker][T#5]","log.logger":"org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.ReservedRealm","trace.id":"8639207dbfa64551d7a302a1df3bda26","elasticsearch.cluster.uuid":"Zxd3v00YQyqJtFTsDw143w","elasticsearch.node.id":"v1WIc0TUReqqZFcTRzsyOw","elasticsearch.node.name":"es01","elasticsearch.cluster.name":"es-cluster","error.type":"org.elasticsearch.action.UnavailableShardsException",

From Kibana:
[2023-05-21T13:56:30.497+00:00][ERROR][elasticsearch-service] Unable to retrieve version information from Elasticsearch nodes. security_exception
	Root causes:
		security_exception: unable to authenticate user [kibana_system] for REST request [/_nodes?filter_path=nodes.*.version%2Cnodes.*.http.publish_address%2Cnodes.*.ip]
[2023-05-21T13:56:30.868+00:00][INFO ][plugins.screenshotting.chromium] Browser executable: /usr/share/kibana/x-pack/plugins/screenshotting/chromium/headless_shell-linux_x64/headless_shell

Solution: Downgrade to version 7

It appears that version 7 handles correctly the access management issues, so we updated our .env file to the following:

STACK_VERSION=7.17.10
ELASTIC_PASSWORD=7XQ2aR7q2g2Q994msd942sLJoAJ7LUvD
KIBANA_PASSWORD=2M7nl2hCH11b7NLht2l8A8ZHBjAKTkxI
ES_PORT=9200
CLUSTER_NAME=es-cluster
LICENSE=basic
MEM_LIMIT=1073741824
KIBANA_PORT=5601
ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_PORT=3002
ENCRYPTION_KEYS=5df1f9f9590ac53b29db6f5eeb9f63be04a43018af3095ef2bfc8a043d38fc7c

Conclusion

While setting up Run Enterprise Search using Docker Compose can be a straightforward process, it is not uncommon to encounter challenges along the way. In this blog post, we discussed the problems we faced regarding access rights and memory allocation and the steps we took to resolve them.

By modifying the YAML file to ensure proper ownership and permissions for the required volumes and adjusting the memory allocation using the recommended command, we successfully overcame these issues. With our configuration now in place, we enjoy the benefits of Elastic Enterprise Search, leveraging its powerful capabilities for our organization’s search and discovery needs.

We hope that sharing our experience and solutions will assist others in overcoming similar obstacles and make their journey toward implementing Elastic Enterprise Search using Docker Compose smoother.