Requirements

JDK level 6.0 (or above) just like Hadoop. As JDK 6 as well as JDK 7 have been both EOL-ed and are not supported by recent product updates, we strongly recommend using the latest JDK 8 (at least u20 or higher). If that is not an option, use JDK 7.0 update u55 (required for Elasticsearch 1.2 or higher). An up-to-date support matrix for Elasticsearch is available here. Do note that the JVM versions are critical for a stable environment as an incorrect version can corrupt the data underneath as explained in this blog post.

One can check the available JDK version from the command line:

$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_45"

We highly recommend using the latest Elasticsearch (currently 5.2.2), but elasticsearch-hadoop is also backwards compatible with the 1.X and 2.X versions of Elasticsearch. Elasticsearch versions lower than 1.X are not supported as elasticsearch-hadoop uses new features added in 1.X for distributed parallel interactions with Elasticsearch. We strongly recommend using the latest, stable version of Elasticsearch.

The Elasticsearch version is shown in its folder name:

$ ls
elasticsearch-5.2.2

If Elasticsearch is running (locally or remotely), one can find out its version through REST:

$ curl -XGET http://localhost:9200
{
  "status" : 200,
  "name" : "Dazzler",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "5.2.2",
    ...
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

Hadoop 1.x (ideally the latest stable version in the 1.x line, currently 1.2.1) or 2.x (ideally the latest stable version, currently 2.4.1). elasticsearch-hadoop is tested daily against Apache Hadoop; any distro compatible with Apache Hadoop should work just fine.

To check the version of Hadoop, one can refer either to its folder or jars (which contain the version in their names) or from the command line:

$ bin/hadoop version
Hadoop 1.2.1

As a guide, the table below lists the Hadoop-based distributions against with this version has been tested against at various points in time:

elasticsearch-hadoop binary can run transparently on both Hadoop 1.x and Yarn / Hadoop 2.x without any changes or modifications.

Cascading version 2.1.x (2.1.6) or higher. We recommend using the latest release of Cascading (currently 2.6.3).

Since Cascading is a library, the best way to find out the target version is to look at its file name:

$ ls
cascading-2.6.3.jar

Apache Hive 0.10 or higher. We recommend using the latest release of Hive (currently 1.2.1).

One can find out the Hive version from its folder name or command-line:

$ bin/hive --version
Hive version 1.2.1

Pig 0.10.0 or higher. We recommend using the latest release of Pig (currently 0.15.0).

In a similar fashion, Pig version can be discovered from its folder path or through the command-line:

$ bin/pig -i
Apache Pig version 0.15.0

Spark 1.3.0 or higher. We recommend using the latest release of Spark (currently 1.6.2). As elasticsearch-hadoop provides native integration (which is recommended) with Apache Spark it does not matter what binary one is using. The same applies when using the Hadoop layer to integrate the two as elasticsearch-hadoop supports the majority of Hadoop distributions out there.

The Spark version can be typically discovery by looking at its folder name:

$ pwd
/libs/spark/spark-1.6.2-bin-XXXXX

or by running its shell:

$ bin/spark-shell
...
Welcome to
      ____              __
     / __/__  ___ _____/ /__
    _\ \/ _ \/ _ `/ __/  '_/
   /___/ .__/\_,_/_/ /_/\_\   version 1.6.2
      /_/
...

Storm 1.0.0 or higher. Do note that Storm 1.0.0 broke backwards compatibility with the previous versions (by changing the package name) however upgrading is easy and recommended. We recommend using the latest release of Storm (currently 1.0.1).

One can discover the Storm version by looking at its folder or by invoking the command:

$ bin/storm version
1.0.1