Can't start docker container due to ElasticSearch bootstrap error

SonarQube Server / Community Build
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1

Must-share information (formatted with Markdown):

  • Using Community Edition 10.7.0 (also tested with 24.12.0.100206)
  • how is SonarQube deployed: Docker
  • what are you trying to achieve: Trying to start the container
  • what have you tried so far to achieve this: Tried adding SONAR_SEARCH_JAVAADDITIONALOPTS="-Dbootstrap.system_call_filter=false" as mentioned in an old post.

I’m starting a fresh install of SonarQube on docker (host system is Debian), and the container is failing to start. I originally had a permissions issue but resolved that, but ElasticSearch is failing its bootstrap checks:

025.01.03 14:56:30 INFO  es[][o.e.b.BootstrapChecks] explicitly enforcing bootstrap checks
2025.01.03 14:56:30 ERROR es[][o.e.b.Elasticsearch] node validation exception
[1] bootstrap checks failed. You must address the points described in the following [1] lines before starting Elasticsearch. For more information see [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/bootstrap-checks.html]
bootstrap check failure [1] of [1]: max virtual memory areas vm.max_map_count [65530] is too low, increase to at least [262144]; for more information see [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/_maximum_map_count_check.html]
ERROR: Elasticsearch did not exit normally - check the logs at /opt/sonarqube/logs/sonarqube.log
2025.01.03 14:56:30 INFO  es[][o.e.n.Node] stopping ...
2025.01.03 14:56:30 INFO  es[][o.e.n.Node] stopped
2025.01.03 14:56:30 INFO  es[][o.e.n.Node] closing ...
2025.01.03 14:56:30 INFO  es[][o.e.n.Node] closed

ERROR: Elasticsearch died while starting up, with exit code 78

As mentioned above, I tried adding SONAR_SEARCH_JAVAADDITIONALOPTS="-Dbootstrap.system_call_filter=false" to my deployment as I saw that in a couple of older posts, but that also fails, with a different error:

2025.01.03 14:59:15 ERROR es[][o.e.b.Elasticsearch] fatal exception while booting Elasticsearch
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: unknown setting [bootstrap.system_call_filter] please check that any required plugins are installed, or check the breaking changes documentation for removed settings
	at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:563) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:509) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:479) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.AbstractScopedSettings.validate(AbstractScopedSettings.java:449) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SettingsModule.<init>(SettingsModule.java:132) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SettingsModule.<init>(SettingsModule.java:50) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.node.NodeConstruction.validateSettings(NodeConstruction.java:503) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.node.NodeConstruction.prepareConstruction(NodeConstruction.java:256) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:192) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch$2.<init>(Elasticsearch.java:240) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.initPhase3(Elasticsearch.java:240) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
	at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:75) ~[elasticsearch-8.14.1.jar:?]
ERROR: Elasticsearch did not exit normally - check the logs at /opt/sonarqube/logs/sonarqube.log

I think these are the commands that would resolve things if it was on my host, but how can I do it in the container? I’d prefer not to have to build my own container extending off the published image:

ulimit -n 65536
sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144

Thanks!

2

I tried a couple of things. I tried running the following command as soon as the container comes online:

sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144

But it failed to write:

sysctl: setting key "vm.max_map_count", ignoring: Read-only file system

I also tried to create an /etc/sysctl.conf file and mount it into the container, but that didn’t work either.

3

Ok, found my issue. I needed to update sysctl on my host, not in the docker container.

I updated etc/sysctl.conf to add this line:

vm.max_map_count=262144

The ran this to update:

sudo sysctl --system

All good after that.

4

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