Docker image "Environment variable ES_HOST is mandatory"

[huggla]

Starting the Docker image fails with "Environment variable ES_HOST is mandatory". This variable is not mentioned in the Docker image documentation:

This command will start a debian-based container, running a Tomcat web server, with a geonetwork war deployed on the server:
docker run --name some-geonetwork -d geonetwork

[huggla]

Setting ES_HOST to localhost seems to fix this. Am I correct?

I now get "No search service available currently!", so is an external Elasticsearch service always needed?

Would be great if you would update the Docker install documentation.

[ThomasJunk]

@huggla

so is an external Elasticsearch service always needed?

It seems to be the case. The docs for the general installation say:

The GeoNetwork search engine is built on top of Elasticsearch. The platform is used to index record and also to analyze WFS data (See Analyze and visualize data), an Elasticsearch https://www.elastic.co/products/elasticsearch instance must be installed next to the catalog

An according docker-compose is here

[jodygarnett]

So what is the action here? Can we make a change to the docs?

https://github.com/docker-library/docs/tree/master/geonetwork

Not sure of the policy for updating this, perhaps via pull-request.