Briefly, this error occurs when Elasticsearch is trying to access a repository for snapshot or restore operations, but the path.repo setting in the elasticsearch.yml configuration file is not set. To resolve this issue, you can either set the path.repo setting in the elasticsearch.yml file to the correct repository path, or disable the repository-azure plugin if it’s not in use. Also, ensure that the specified path is accessible and has the necessary read/write permissions. After making changes, restart the Elasticsearch node for the changes to take effect.
This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” The specified location [{}] should start with a repository path specified by the path.repo setting; but the path.repo setting was not set on this node ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: repositories and repository-azure.
Overview
An Elasticsearch snapshot provides a backup mechanism that takes the current state and data in the cluster and saves it to a repository (read snapshot for more information). The backup process requires a repository to be created first. The repository needs to be registered using the _snapshot endpoint, and multiple repositories can be created per cluster. The following repository types are supported:
Repository types
| Repository type | Configuration type |
|---|---|
| Shared file system | Type: “fs” |
| S3 | Type : “s3” |
| HDFS | Type :“hdfs” |
| Azure | Type: “azure” |
| Google Cloud Storage | Type : “gcs” |
Examples
To register an “fs” repository:
PUT _snapshot/my_repo_01
{
"type": "fs",
"settings": {
"location": "/mnt/my_repo_dir"
}
}Notes and good things to know
- S3, HDFS, Azure and Google Cloud require a relevant plugin to be installed before it can be used for a snapshot.
- The setting, path.repo: /mnt/my_repo_dir needs to be added to elasticsearch.yml on all the nodes if you are planning to use the repo type of file system. Otherwise, it will fail.
- When using remote repositories, the network bandwidth and repository storage throughput should be high enough to complete the snapshot operations normally, otherwise you will end up with partial snapshots.
Log Context
Log “The specified location [{}] should start with a repository path specified by the path.repo setting; but the path.repo setting was not set on this node” classname is FsRepository.java.
We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
if (locationFile == null) {
if (environment.repoFiles().length > 0) {
logger.warn("The specified location [{}] doesn't start with any repository paths specified by the path.repo setting: [{}] "; location; environment.repoFiles());
throw new RepositoryException(name.name(); "location [" + location + "] doesn't match any of the locations specified by path.repo");
} else {
logger.warn("The specified location [{}] should start with a repository path specified by the path.repo setting; but the path.repo setting was not set on this node"; location);
throw new RepositoryException(name.name(); "location [" + location + "] doesn't match any of the locations specified by path.repo because this setting is empty");
}
}
blobStore = new FsBlobStore(settings; locationFile);
