ES 2.0 rpm does not create /home/elasticsearch

[packplusplus]

Causes issue if you try to run a cron job as the ES user. Issue on centos 6, package from the repo.

[centos@ip-10-233-237-10 ~]$ sudo su - elasticsearch -s /bin/bash
su: warning: cannot change directory to /home/elasticsearch: No such file or directory

-bash-4.1$ grep elastic /etc/passwd
elasticsearch:x:498:498:elasticsearch user:/home/elasticsearch:/sbin/nologin

-bash-4.1$ ls -l /home/
total 4
drwx------. 3 centos centos 4096 Nov  2 20:23 centos

[joshuar]

The value of HOME used when creating the elasticsearch user should probably be set to something other than /home/elasticsearch that exists and has executable permissions for the elasticsearch user.

In the interim, you can just set HOME to something else, like HOME=/ to get your cron jobs running again.

[packplusplus]

I just have the puppet role create /home/elasticseach. Its a packaging bug, creating a user with the wrong home directory set. Either create the home directory, or like you said, set home to /var/lib/elasticsearch or whatever.

[clintongormley]

On 2.0 it doesn't look like we're setting the home directory, no? https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/2.0/distribution/src/main/packaging/scripts/preinst#L67

Is this user not a hangover from a previous installation?

[joshuar]

If we don't set the home directory, I think it defaults to whatever the base home directory is in /etc/default/useradd plus the username. So usually this ends up being /home/username, even for system users.

[pickypg]

@clintongormley I don't think that the file has changed since 1.6 at least https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/1.6/src/packaging/common/scripts/preinst#L67

Before that, it was using the specific scripts: https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/1.4/src/rpm/scripts/preinstall

---

I went ahead and installed ES 1.4.3, 1.7.3, and ES 2.0.0 (in reverse order) onto a CentOS 7 VM via yum. None of them created a /home/elasticsearch entry. I cannot find where we may have created it at some point. Perhaps we never did?

[tlrx]

@clintongormley I don't think that the file has changed since 1.6 at least https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/1.6/src/packaging/common/scripts/preinst#L67

In ES 1.6 an effort has been made to unify the behaviour of package & install scripts among the different Linux distributions and I think the change has been made at this time. Elasticsearch does not need any home directory to work so it is not created by the scripts.

Depending of the distribution, su - does a bunch of things and among them it tries to change directory to user's home which does not exist... You're not forced to su - in order to run a cron job.

[packplusplus]

I don't know what the original version of ES was installed on that cluster, but somewhere along the line /home/elasticsearch was created. It was a cron job failing on a redeploy that kicked out the message.

If it's not expected to create it, then I guess it's not a bug. If I look at most other "system type" users in RHEL/CentOS they normally set the homedir to / in the passwd file, or in the case of some services that store a lot of data, their var dir. Debian seems to just create a /home/USER dir for non data storing services.

TLDR; Seems weird to create a user with a home directory that doesn't exist. I'd vote either create the dir (to be consistent with debian), or point it to / to be consistent RHEL.

[twigbranch]

/home/elasticsearch is also useful to house .java.policy files as discussed here: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/modules-scripting-security.html#_customising_the_classloader_whitelist

[JakeFromTheDark]

Just extend the useradd command by -d /usr/share/elasticsearch, please.

[pawelan]

Guys are you planning first anniversary celebration because it is almost 1 year old!?
I have checked latest version 5.0.0 rpm and it is still making mess in user configuration.
Is this one liner fix so time consuming?

The bug #20599 which was closed as duplicate was actually better titled because the problem is not that home directory is not being created but because the correct one is undefined during user creation in rpm. JakeFromTheDark solution is correct. The other is similar but with /var/lib/elasticsearch set as home dir.

Pretty please with a sugar on top fix it :)

[prupert]

The issue is still prevalent in Elasticsearch 6.x where the elasticsearch user is created with a non-existing home directory /home/elasticsearch.

Confirmed with package elasticsearch-6.3.0-1.noarch on CentOS 7. Please re-open this issue.

[rjernst]

@prupert It was an intentional decision to explicitly not create the home dir, as elasticsearch is a system user. Please don't run cron with the elasticsearch user.

[prupert]

Although I'm not sure setting an invalid home directory is the right way to prevent/nudge users not to run cron with the elasticsearch user, I do understand now why you wouldn't want that happening.

Thank you for your reply. I will discontinue using the elasticsearch user for our curator cron jobs.