Elasticsearch: 2. The lifecycle script

This documentation is part of the GitHub Actions & GitLab CI guide. View the full guide here: Spin up a real Elasticsearch service from your GitHub Actions or GitLab CI pipeline, run your tests against it, and tear it down automatically.

👋 Welcome to the Stackhero documentation

Stackhero delivers a fully managed Elasticsearch cloud service designed for professionals who need reliable search, analytics, and logging at scale.

  • Consistent performance and strong security with a private, dedicated infrastructure.
  • Easily set up a custom domain name secured by HTTPS.

Get started quickly and focus on your work: you can have a production-ready Elasticsearch cloud hosting environment in about 5 minutes, with routine maintenance and security handled for you.

Here is a complete example script that manages the full service lifecycle. It demonstrates how little setup is required, just a few commands. You can copy the ready-made YAML for your platform from the sections below.

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

# STACKHERO_TOKEN is supplied by the CI secret, the CLI picks it up automatically.

stackName="ci-elasticsearch-$$"          # Unique stack name for each run
serviceStore="elasticsearch"             # The Elasticsearch service store
instance="20G"        # Change this as needed (see step 3)
region="europe"                         # Region name (see stackhero regions-list)

# 1. Install the CLI on the runner
curl -fsSL https://www.stackhero.io/install.sh | sh

# 2. Install the client required for smoke testing (jq + curl are the baseline)
apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends jq curl

# 3. Create a dedicated stack for this run
stackId=$(stackhero --format=script stack-create --name="$stackName")
echo "Stack created: $stackId"

# 4. Add Elasticsearch and capture its service id
serviceId=$(stackhero --format=script service-add \
  --stack="$stackId" \
  --service-store="$serviceStore" \
  --instance="$instance" \
  --region="$region")
echo "Service added: $serviceId"

# 5. Wait until the service is running (this may take a couple of minutes)
stackhero service-wait-for --service="$serviceId"

# 6. Read the configuration (contains the generated credentials)
config=$(stackhero service-configuration-get --service="$serviceId" --format=json)

# 7. Extract the credentials you need
host=$(echo "$config" | jq -r '.configuration.domain')
user=$(echo "$config" | jq -r '.configuration.credentials.login')
password=$(echo "$config" | jq -r '.configuration.credentials.password')

# 8. Smoke test: Call the cluster health endpoint.
curl -fsS -u "$user:$password" "https://$host:9200/_cluster/health" | grep -q '"status"'

echo "✅ Elasticsearch is reachable from CI."

The teardown step, which deletes the service, waits for its removal, and then deletes the stack, is handled in the platform-specific sections below. This approach makes sure cleanup always happens, even if a smoke test fails.

A stack can only be deleted once it is empty. Always delete the service first and wait for its removal, then delete the stack. The service-wait-for command ensures the service is either running or deleted before proceeding, making it the right tool for deletion waits too.