Fix Arkime PCAP Ingestion: Docker & Elasticsearch Guide

Hey guys, have you ever run into that frustrating moment when you’re all set to dive into network traffic analysis with Arkime, you've got your Docker containers spinning up, the UI loads beautifully, but… crickets? No PCAPs ingested! It’s like throwing a party and no one shows up with the snacks. I totally get it! You've successfully launched EnoArkime, perhaps even enjoyed their awesome AD CTF challenges, only to hit a roadblock when it comes to getting data into the system. This is a super common hiccup for many folks, especially when dealing with Dockerized environments and the intricate dance between Arkime and Elasticsearch. But don't you worry, because in this comprehensive guide, we're going to break down exactly what might be going wrong and how to fix those pesky PCAP ingestion issues. We’ll walk through your docker-compose.yml, decode those cryptic logs, and get your network data flowing smoothly into Arkime so you can start analyzing like a pro. Our primary goal here is to help you understand the core mechanics, identify the most common pitfalls, and equip you with practical, actionable steps to troubleshoot and resolve the problem. We're talking about everything from ensuring your data volumes are correctly configured to making sure Elasticsearch is not just running, but truly ready to receive data from Arkime's capture process. So, let's roll up our sleeves and get those PCAPs ingested!

Understanding the Problem: Why Aren't My PCAPs Showing Up in Arkime?

Alright, so you’ve got the Arkime UI up and running, which is fantastic news! That means at least part of your Docker setup is working correctly. However, the core issue, no PCAPs ingested, is like having a perfectly good car without any fuel. Arkime is a powerful tool for large-scale full packet capture and session analysis, and its entire purpose revolves around consuming PCAP files and indexing their metadata into an Elasticsearch database, while storing the raw PCAPs on disk. When the UI is visible but empty, it signals a breakdown in this critical ingestion pipeline. There are a few common points where this process can fail, and understanding them is key to effective troubleshooting. For starters, the logs you provided clearly indicate that the Arkime container is waiting for Elasticsearch to start. This is a normal and expected part of the startup sequence. However, the subsequent curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 messages are a huge red flag. This error, repeating several times, suggests that when Arkime finally tries to communicate with Elasticsearch to perform initial setup tasks – like checking if Elasticsearch is initialized or creating necessary indices – it’s hitting a wall. Even if Elasticsearch appears to start successfully in its own logs, Arkime might be trying to access endpoints that aren't yet available, or there might be an underlying network communication issue that prevents Arkime from fully onboarding. Moreover, the note that the /pcaps folder is empty on your host system is another critical piece of information. If there are no actual PCAP files in the directory mounted into the Arkime container, then naturally, Arkime will have nothing to ingest, regardless of how well Elasticsearch is functioning. We'll need to meticulously check these areas to pinpoint the exact cause of your PCAP ingestion woes and get your system working as intended. Remember, a robust network security monitoring setup relies on every component playing nicely together, and any misstep in the Docker orchestration or communication between services can lead to data gaps. Let's make sure that's not the case for your EnoArkime instance!

Diving into the Docker Compose Setup

Let’s take a good, hard look at your docker-compose.yml file, because this little guy is the blueprint for your entire EnoArkime deployment. Understanding each piece here is fundamental to fixing PCAP ingestion issues. You've got two main services defined: arkime and elasticsearch. The arkime service is based on the ghcr.io/enoflag/enoarkime:5.3.0 image, which is super convenient as it bundles Arkime's capture and viewer components. It exposes port 8005 to your host, allowing you to access the Arkime UI. Crucially, it defines a volume: - "./pcaps:/opt/arkime/raw". This line is telling Docker to take the ./pcaps directory on your host machine (the one where you're running docker-compose) and mount it inside the Arkime container at /opt/arkime/raw. This is where Arkime's capture component looks for PCAP files to process. If your host's ./pcaps directory is empty, as you mentioned, then Arkime literally has nothing to ingest. Think of it like an empty inbox for the capture process. The elasticsearch service uses the elasticsearch:7.14.2 image, which is a specific version that Arkime is known to work with. It's configured with -Xms512m -Xmx512m for Java heap space, which is a good baseline for development or light usage, preventing Elasticsearch from hogging all your RAM. The xpack.security.enabled: "false" and discovery.type: "single-node" are absolutely critical for a straightforward, single-node setup like this. Disabling X-Pack security simplifies initial setup by removing authentication hurdles, which is often desirable in a development environment, while single-node prevents Elasticsearch from trying to form a cluster with other non-existent nodes, streamlining its startup. You've also smartly disabled DISABLE_SECURITY_PLUGIN and DISABLE_INSTALL_DEMO_CONFIG which helps to ensure a clean, unburdened Elasticsearch instance tailored for Arkime. The ingest.geoip.downloader.enabled: false is another good optimization to prevent Elasticsearch from trying to download large GeoIP databases on startup if you're not planning to use that functionality immediately, speeding up the initial launch. So, overall, your docker-compose.yml looks pretty solid for a basic setup. The potential issues here usually boil down to what's inside the ./pcaps directory or how Arkime and Elasticsearch are timing their interactions during startup, which we'll explore by digging into the logs.

Deciphering the Arkime and Elasticsearch Logs

Let's put on our detective hats and examine those logs, because they're telling us a pretty clear story about what's happening under the hood. The arkime-1 | Waiting for elastic search to start... messages are perfectly normal. They just mean the Arkime container is patiently (or impatiently!) looping until it can successfully connect to Elasticsearch. Eventually, we see Elasticsearch respond with its version information, which is a good sign: { "name" : "ea599c59d34d", "cluster_name" : "docker-cluster", "cluster_uuid" : "HNcoXygfSQCSDH2GsSnP9A", "version" : { "number" : "7.14.2", ... } }. This confirms that Elasticsearch version 7.14.2 has indeed started up and is reachable by Arkime at some level. However, immediately after this, we hit a series of critical errors from the Arkime container: curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404. These 404 Not Found errors are happening when Arkime tries to perform initial setup tasks on Elasticsearch, specifically when it runs Check if elasticsearch is initalized, otherwise do it. This suggests that while Elasticsearch might be technically running, it might not be fully ready or the specific endpoints Arkime is trying to hit for initialization aren't yet available. This often happens with depends_on in Docker Compose; depends_on only ensures the linked container is started, not necessarily ready to accept connections or handle all requests. If Arkime attempts to create indices or check the schema before Elasticsearch has fully completed its internal bootstrapping, it will indeed get 404 errors. Looking at the Elasticsearch logs, we see a whole cascade of INFO messages confirming its startup process: node name [ea599c59d34d], cluster UUID set to [HNcoXygfSQCSDH2GsSnP9A], and finally, message: "started". This definitively tells us that Elasticsearch did eventually get its act together and became fully operational. The Arkime logs then shift. After multiple 404s, it eventually states Initializing elasticsearch... and performs Erasing, Creating, Adding Arkime user, Starting Arkime viewer, and Starting Arkime capture. This indicates that Arkime eventually managed to connect and perform its database initialization, albeit with some initial struggles. You even see SYNC 200 http://elasticsearch:9200/_template/arkime_sessions3_template?filter_path=**._meta and SYNC 201 http://elasticsearch:9200/arkime_sequence/_doc/fn-enoarkime?version_type=external&version=100, confirming successful interactions later on. However, there are two important warnings: WARNING: gethostname doesn't return a fully qualified name (minor, often fixable with --host option) and WARNING - No Geo Country file could be loaded and No Geo ASN file could be loaded. These GeoIP warnings are not directly related to PCAP ingestion but are good to note if you plan on using geographic data. The crucial line, the one that directly addresses your initial problem, is the statement at the very beginning of your problem description: "The /pcaps folder is empty." Even if Arkime successfully connects to Elasticsearch and initializes its database, if there are no PCAP files in the /opt/arkime/raw directory (which is mounted from your host's empty ./pcaps folder), then there will be no data to ingest. The system is working, but it’s processing an empty input queue. The Arkime capture process started (Starting Arkime capture), but without files to process, it will simply sit idle, constantly sending arkime_stats and arkime_dstats updates to Elasticsearch, which are simply metrics about its own operation, not actual session data derived from PCAPs. This is a classic case of GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out, or rather, Nothing In, Nothing Out.

Common Causes for Arkime PCAP Ingestion Failure

When Arkime PCAP ingestion fails, it's often due to a few key areas that are either misconfigured or not properly synchronized within the Docker ecosystem. Let's break down the most common culprits, beyond the obvious