Core Docs - Core Concepts - Installing Elasticsearch

Rock Version: v21.0
Last Modified: 2026-09-28 12:24 PM

Installing Elasticsearch is server work, usually done by whoever manages the server that hosts Rock. If you'd rather skip it, the built-in Lucene provider needs no extra software, and Intro to Universal Search compares the two. Elasticsearch runs as its own service and doesn't have to share a server with Rock, as long as Rock can reach it at the Node URL you enter. The following steps cover a Windows install. For Linux or macOS, use Elastic's Elasticsearch 8.x install guide, then enter the Rock settings in steps 6 and 7. Detailed instructions for installing and running ElasticSearch on Windows can also be found on the elastic.co website.

Windows Service
If you want to install and run Elasticsearch as a service on Windows, follow the instructions found here.  

At this point you should have a running version of Elasticsearch. You can confirm this by entering http://localhost:9200 into your browser. If prompted to log in, use the UserName and Password from the above steps.

You should then see something like the text below in your web browser.

{
  "name" : "Tarantula",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
  "cluster_uuid" : "AAbbCCdd1AAbbCCdd-A",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "8.1.2",
    "build_flavor" : "default",
    "build_type" : "zip",
    "build_hash" : "b93ccf4",
    "build_date" : "2022-04-11T14:35:35.762374852Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "9.0.0",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "7.17.0",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "7.0.0"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

With all of the above in place you can now configure entities for search using the instructions provided earlier in this guide.

Elasticvue

Once you're done setting up Elasticsearch, you may want to consider installing Elasticvue. It's a nice administrative console for Elasticsearch which gives you some visibility into what's going on under the hood. It comes as a browser extension, which is easy to set up. To do this simply:

Multiple Environments

If you have an Elasticsearch server configured in different environments on separate VMs, you’ll need to make some changes after refreshing from one environment from the other. Generally, this applies when you’re refreshing a sandbox environment from a production environment.

The settings in Rock must be changed to point the refreshed environment to the correct Elasticsearch server.

To do this, go to Admin Tools > System Settings > Universal Search Index Components and click on Elasticsearch 8.x. Then, update the following fields according to your Elasticsearch setup:

Note that you may not need to update the UserName if they’re the same in both environments.

Your sandbox environment will not be able to reach your production Elasticsearch server until these updates are made. This can be confirmed by going to Admin Tools > General Settings > Universal Search Control Panel. If the node hasn’t been updated after a refresh, you’ll see a message indicating a connection to the Elasticsearch server cannot be made.