elasticsearch not starting {0.90.0} : Startup Failed

Question

I am not able to start elasticsearch. I tried

bin/elasticsearch

bin/elasticsearch -f

bin/elasticsearch -f ES_HEAP_SIZE=4g

but I keep getting the following message after a two-second pause...

{0.90.0}: Startup Failed ...
- OutOfMemoryError[unable to create new native thread]

NOTE 1: elasticsearch was working perfectly for me before I indexed 4 million documents into the server, after which I kept getting this error.

NOTE 2: even though elasticsearch does not startup, I am still able to execute the curl command on the elasticsearch server (strange indeed)

curl -XGET http://localhost:9200
{
  "ok" : true,
  "status" : 200,
  "name" : "Thumbelina",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "0.90.0",
    "snapshot_build" : false
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

My guess is that one of the search queries to the 4 million documents is still running but I tried exiting the terminal, killing the process, increasing the heap size and stopping the elasticsearch process using bin/elasticsearch stop. My elasticsearch version is 0.90.0. Sorry for the long question and any help would be great. Thanks.

Answer 1

This discussion implies that increasing the ulimit value may help. Search for ulimit on this Elasticsearch reference page for additional details.

Does the process still appear to be running on the OS (e.g., using ps on the host box)?