Elasticsearch service failed to start on Ubuntu 20.04

I can't start the Elasticsearch service on my Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) installation:

 #systemctl status elasticsearch.service
● elasticsearch.service - Elasticsearch Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/elasticsearch.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/elasticsearch.service.d └─override.conf Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2021-10-17 21:30:19 UTC; 27min ago Docs: Process: 2133147 ExecStart=/usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/systemd-entrypoint -p ${PID_DIR}/elasticsearch.pid --quiet> Main PID: 2133147 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Oct 17 21:30:18 stavilelk01 systemd-entrypoint[2133147]: at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(>
Oct 17 21:30:18 stavilelk01 systemd-entrypoint[2133147]: at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.exec>
Oct 17 21:30:18 stavilelk01 systemd-entrypoint[2133147]: at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHand>
Oct 17 21:30:18 stavilelk01 systemd-entrypoint[2133147]: at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:79)
Oct 17 21:30:18 stavilelk01 systemd-entrypoint[2133147]: at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Ela>
Oct 17 21:30:18 stavilelk01 systemd-entrypoint[2133147]: at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Ela>
Oct 17 21:30:18 stavilelk01 systemd-entrypoint[2133147]: For complete error details, refer to the log at /home/admin_e>
Oct 17 21:30:19 stavilelk01 systemd[1]: elasticsearch.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 17 21:30:19 stavilelk01 systemd[1]: elasticsearch.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 17 21:30:19 stavilelk01 systemd[1]: Failed to start Elasticsearch.

Here are the logs:

/var/log/elasticsearch# journalctl -xe
-- Automatic restarting of the unit logstash.service has been scheduled, as the result for
-- the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 systemd[1]: Stopped logstash.
-- Subject: A stop job for unit logstash.service has finished
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support:
--
-- A stop job for unit logstash.service has finished.
--
-- The job identifier is 5920063 and the job result is done.
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 systemd[1]: Started logstash.
-- Subject: A start job for unit logstash.service has finished successfully
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support:
--
-- A start job for unit logstash.service has finished successfully.
--
-- The job identifier is 5920063.
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 logstash[2143095]: Using bundled JDK: /usr/share/logstash/jdk
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 logstash[2143095]: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: Option UseConcMarkSweepGC was depreca>
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sda: add missing path
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sda: failed to get udev uid: Invalid argument
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sda: failed to get sysfs uid: Invalid argument
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sda: failed to get sgio uid: No such file or directory
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sdb: add missing path
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sdb: failed to get udev uid: Invalid argument
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sdb: failed to get sysfs uid: Invalid argument
Oct 17 21:58:36 stavilelk01 multipathd[828]: sdb: failed to get sgio uid: No such file or directory

How can I resolve this?

1 Answer

VMWare does not provide information needed by udev to generate /dev/disk/by-id entries. A number of the VMware products have this habit. The solution is to edit the .vmx file for your virtual machine, adding this:

disk.EnableUUID = "TRUE"

After a reboot, the disks will be properly visible and multipathd won’t complain anymore. This may resolve your elastic search issue.