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Elastic Docs ›Elasticsearch Guide [8.17] ›Set up Elasticsearch ›Configuring Elasticsearch

Set JVM options

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Set JVM options

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If needed, you can override the default JVM options by adding custom options files (preferred) or setting the ES_JAVA_OPTS environment variable.

JVM options files must have the suffix .options and contain a line-delimited list of JVM arguments. JVM processes options files in lexicographic order.

Where you put the JVM options files depends on the type of installation:

  • tar.gz or .zip: Add custom JVM options files to config/jvm.options.d/.
  • Debian or RPM: Add custom JVM options files to /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options.d/.
  • Docker: Bind mount custom JVM options files into /usr/share/elasticsearch/config/jvm.options.d/.

Setting your own JVM options is generally not recommended and could negatively impact performance and stability. Using the Elasticsearch-provided defaults is recommended in most circumstances.

Do not modify the root jvm.options file. Use files in jvm.options.d/ instead.

JVM options syntax

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A JVM options file contains a line-delimited list of JVM arguments. Arguments are preceded by a dash (-). To apply the setting to specific versions, prepend the version or a range of versions followed by a colon.

  • Apply a setting to all versions:

    -Xmx2g

  • Apply a setting to a specific version:

    17:-Xmx2g

  • Apply a setting to a range of versions:

    17-18:-Xmx2g

    To apply a setting to a specific version and any later versions, omit the upper bound of the range. For example, this setting applies to Java 8 and later:

    17-:-Xmx2g

Blank lines are ignored. Lines beginning with # are treated as comments and ignored. Lines that aren’t commented out and aren’t recognized as valid JVM arguments are rejected and Elasticsearch will fail to start.

Use environment variables to set JVM options

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In production, use JVM options files to override the default settings. In testing and development environments, you can also set JVM options through the ES_JAVA_OPTS environment variable.

export ES_JAVA_OPTS="$ES_JAVA_OPTS -Djava.io.tmpdir=/path/to/temp/dir"
./bin/elasticsearch

If you’re using the RPM or Debian packages, you can specify ES_JAVA_OPTS in the system configuration file.

Elasticsearch ignores the JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS and JAVA_OPTS environment variables.

Set the JVM heap size

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By default, Elasticsearch automatically sets the JVM heap size based on a node’s roles and total memory. Using the default sizing is recommended for most production environments.

To override the default heap size, set the minimum and maximum heap size settings, Xms and Xmx. The minimum and maximum values must be the same.

The heap size should be based on the available RAM:

  • Set Xms and Xmx to no more than 50% of your total memory. Elasticsearch requires memory for purposes other than the JVM heap. For example, Elasticsearch uses off-heap buffers for efficient network communication and relies on the operating system’s filesystem cache for efficient access to files. The JVM itself also requires some memory. It’s normal for Elasticsearch to use more memory than the limit configured with the Xmx setting.

    When running in a container, such as Docker, total memory is defined as the amount of memory visible to the container, not the total system memory on the host.

  • Set Xms and Xmx to no more than the threshold for compressed ordinary object pointers (oops). The exact threshold varies but 26GB is safe on most systems and can be as large as 30GB on some systems. To verify you are under the threshold, check the Elasticsearch log for an entry like this:

    heap size [1.9gb], compressed ordinary object pointers [true]

    Or check the jvm.using_compressed_ordinary_object_pointers value for the nodes using the nodes info API:

    resp = client.nodes.info(
    node_id="_all",
    metric="jvm",
)
print(resp)
    response = client.nodes.info(
  node_id: '_all',
  metric: 'jvm'
)
puts response
    const response = await client.nodes.info({
  node_id: "_all",
  metric: "jvm",
});
console.log(response);
    GET _nodes/_all/jvm

The more heap available to Elasticsearch, the more memory it can use for its internal caches. This leaves less memory for the operating system to use for the filesystem cache. Larger heaps can also cause longer garbage collection pauses.

To configure the heap size, add the Xms and Xmx JVM arguments to a custom JVM options file with the extension .options and store it in the jvm.options.d/ directory. For example, to set the maximum heap size to 2GB, set both Xms and Xmx to 2g:

-Xms2g
-Xmx2g

For testing, you can also set the heap sizes using the ES_JAVA_OPTS environment variable:

ES_JAVA_OPTS="-Xms2g -Xmx2g" ./bin/elasticsearch

The ES_JAVA_OPTS variable overrides all other JVM options. We do not recommend using ES_JAVA_OPTS in production.

If you are running Elasticsearch as a Windows service, you can change the heap size using the service manager. See Install and run Elasticsearch as a service on Windows.

JVM heap dump path setting

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By default, Elasticsearch configures the JVM to dump the heap on out of memory exceptions to the default data directory. On RPM and Debian packages, the data directory is /var/lib/elasticsearch. On Linux and MacOS and Windows distributions, the data directory is located under the root of the Elasticsearch installation.

If this path is not suitable for receiving heap dumps, modify the -XX:HeapDumpPath=... entry in jvm.options:

  • If you specify a directory, the JVM will generate a filename for the heap dump based on the PID of the running instance.
  • If you specify a fixed filename instead of a directory, the file must not exist when the JVM needs to perform a heap dump on an out of memory exception. Otherwise, the heap dump will fail.

GC logging settings

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By default, Elasticsearch enables garbage collection (GC) logs. These are configured in jvm.options and output to the same default location as the Elasticsearch logs. The default configuration rotates the logs every 64 MB and can consume up to 2 GB of disk space.

You can reconfigure JVM logging using the command line options described in JEP 158: Unified JVM Logging. Unless you change the default jvm.options file directly, the Elasticsearch default configuration is applied in addition to your own settings. To disable the default configuration, first disable logging by supplying the -Xlog:disable option, then supply your own command line options. This disables all JVM logging, so be sure to review the available options and enable everything that you require.

To see further options not contained in the original JEP, see Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging Framework.

Examples

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Change the default GC log output location to /opt/my-app/gc.log by creating $ES_HOME/config/jvm.options.d/gc.options with some sample options:

# Turn off all previous logging configuratons
-Xlog:disable

# Default settings from JEP 158, but with `utctime` instead of `uptime` to match the next line
-Xlog:all=warning:stderr:utctime,level,tags

# Enable GC logging to a custom location with a variety of options
-Xlog:gc*,gc+age=trace,safepoint:file=/opt/my-app/gc.log:utctime,level,pid,tags:filecount=32,filesize=64m

Configure an Elasticsearch Docker container to send GC debug logs to standard error (stderr). This lets the container orchestrator handle the output. If using the ES_JAVA_OPTS environment variable, specify:

MY_OPTS="-Xlog:disable -Xlog:all=warning:stderr:utctime,level,tags -Xlog:gc=debug:stderr:utctime"
docker run -e ES_JAVA_OPTS="$MY_OPTS" # etc

JVM fatal error log setting

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By default, Elasticsearch configures the JVM to write fatal error logs to the default logging directory. On RPM and Debian packages, this directory is /var/log/elasticsearch. On Linux and MacOS and Windows distributions, the logs directory is located under the root of the Elasticsearch installation.

These are logs produced by the JVM when it encounters a fatal error, such as a segmentation fault. If this path is not suitable for receiving logs, modify the -XX:ErrorFile=... entry in jvm.options.

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