Install Elasticsearch 7.x on Debian Buster.

Installation

Install the required packages.

$ sudo apt-get install curl gnupg apt-transport-https

Import Elasticsearch public key using curl.

$ curl https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -

Define the Elasticsearch repository.

$ echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/oss-7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list
This repository contains a build that’s 100% Apache 2.0 code.

Update package index.

$ sudo apt-get update

Install Elasticsearch.

$ sudo apt-get install elasticsearch-oss

The service will be disabled by default.

$ systemctl status elasticsearch.service 
● elasticsearch.service - Elasticsearch
 Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/elasticsearch.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
 Active: inactive (dead)
	 Docs: http://www.elastic.co

JVM configuration

The first thing is to increase JVM heap size, which is by default set to 1G.

Small instance

If it is a small server that contains less than 32G of available memory, then use about half that.

$ grep ^MemTotal  /proc/meminfo | awk '{printf "%d\n",$2/1024}'
7865

$ grep ^MemTotal  /proc/meminfo | awk '{printf "%d\n",($2*0.5)/1024}'
3932

Use around 4G in this case.

Regular instance

If the server contains more than 32G (like 64G) of available memory, and you can assign 32G or more, but you still want to take advantage of the Compressed Oops, then perform the following steps to determine the correct value.

In general, you need to find the transition point.

$ /usr/share/elasticsearch/jdk/bin/java -Xmx30g -XX:+PrintFlagsFinal 2>/dev/null | grep UseCompressedOops
     bool UseCompressedOops                        = true                                 {lp64_product} {ergonomic}

$ /usr/share/elasticsearch/jdk/bin/java -Xmx32g -XX:+PrintFlagsFinal 2>/dev/null | grep UseCompressedOops
     bool UseCompressedOops                        = false                                {lp64_product} {default}

Use this simple shell script to determine the sweet spot.

$ compressed_oops_true=""; \
  [ -f /usr/share/elasticsearch/jdk/bin/java ] && \
    for compressed_oops in $(seq 30000 100 34000); do 
      /usr/share/elasticsearch/jdk/bin/java -Xmx${compressed_oops}m -XX:+PrintFlagsFinal 2>/dev/null | \
        grep UseCompressedOops | \
        grep false >/dev/null && \
          break; 
      compressed_oops_true=$compressed_oops; \
    done; \
    [ -n "$compressed_oops_true" ] && \
      echo "Compressed Oops was true for ${compressed_oops_true}m and false for ${compressed_oops}m"
Compressed Oops was true for 32700m and false for 32800m

Use no more then 32700M in this case.

Alter JVM heap size

Edit /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options to edit min and max JVM heap size.

-Xms4g
-Xmx4g

Elasticsearch configuration

Edit /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml to alter initial settings like listen address, cluster, and node name.

cluster.name: elasticsearch-single-node-cluster
node.name: single-node
network.host: 10.0.2.15
discovery.type: single-node

I also have disabled discovery, so it will not join a cluster with any other node.

Manage service

Start the Elasticsearch service.

$ sudo systemctl start elasticsearch.service

Enable Elasticsearch service at boot.

$ sudo systemctl enable elasticsearch.service

Check service status

Node name and version.

$ curl http://10.0.2.15:9200
{
  "name" : "single-node",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch-single-node-cluster",
  "cluster_uuid" : "g6PWsnkFRWG-RLyt1-aXSw",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "7.5.1",
    "build_flavor" : "oss",
    "build_type" : "deb",
    "build_hash" : "3ae9ac9a93c95bd0cdc054951cf95d88e1e18d96",
    "build_date" : "2019-12-16T22:57:37.835892Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "8.3.0",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "6.8.0",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "6.0.0-beta1"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

Cluster status.

$ curl http://10.0.2.15:9200/_cluster/health?pretty
{
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch-single-node-cluster",
  "status" : "green",
  "timed_out" : false,
  "number_of_nodes" : 1,
  "number_of_data_nodes" : 1,
  "active_primary_shards" : 0,
  "active_shards" : 0,
  "relocating_shards" : 0,
  "initializing_shards" : 0,
  "unassigned_shards" : 0,
  "delayed_unassigned_shards" : 0,
  "number_of_pending_tasks" : 0,
  "number_of_in_flight_fetch" : 0,
  "task_max_waiting_in_queue_millis" : 0,
  "active_shards_percent_as_number" : 100.0
}

List of nodes.

$ curl http://10.0.2.15:9200/_cat/nodes?v
ip        heap.percent ram.percent cpu load_1m load_5m load_15m node.role master name
10.0.2.15           55          98   0    0.17    0.18     0.08 dim      *      single-node

Additional notes

Installing Elasticsearch

Limiting Memory Usage

Heap: Sizing and Swapping – Don’t Cross 32 GB!

Single-node discovery

ko-fi