SonarSource/sonarqube · critical

Failed to create temporary configuration directory [%s]

Error message

Failed to create temporary configuration directory [%s]

What it means

createElasticsearchConfDirectory creates the temporary ES conf directory with mkdirs(). If mkdirs() returns false (directory cannot be created — it already exists as a file, or parent is not writable), it logs and throws this IllegalStateException, aborting process launch because ES cannot start without a conf directory.

Source

Thrown at server/sonar-main/src/main/java/org/sonar/application/ProcessLauncherImpl.java:166

    esInstallation.getEsJvmOptions().writeToJvmOptionFile(esInstallation.getJvmOptions());
    storeElasticsearchLog4j2Properties(esInstallation);
  }

  private static void pruneElasticsearchConfDirectory(File confDir) {
    try {
      if (confDir.exists()) {
        FileUtils2.deleteDirectory(confDir);
      }
    } catch (IOException e) {
      throw new IllegalStateException("Could not delete Elasticsearch temporary conf directory", e);
    }
  }

  private static void createElasticsearchConfDirectory(File confDir) {
    if (!confDir.mkdirs()) {
      String error = format("Failed to create temporary configuration directory [%s]", confDir.getAbsolutePath());
      LOG.error(error);
      throw new IllegalStateException(error);
    }
  }

  private void setupElasticsearchSecurity(EsInstallation esInstallation) {
    if (esInstallation.isSecurityEnabled()) {
      EsKeyStoreCli keyStoreCli = EsKeyStoreCli.getInstance(esInstallation);

      setupElasticsearchAuthentication(esInstallation, keyStoreCli);
      setupElasticsearchHttpEncryption(esInstallation, keyStoreCli);

      keyStoreCli.executeWith(this::launchJava);
    }
  }

  private static void setupElasticsearchAuthentication(EsInstallation esInstallation, EsKeyStoreCli keyStoreCli) {
    keyStoreCli.store(BOOTSTRAP_PASSWORD_PROPERTY_KEY, esInstallation.getBootstrapPassword());

    String esConfPath = esInstallation.getConfDirectory().getAbsolutePath();

View on GitHub (pinned to 184c821202)

Solutions

1. Verify and fix write permissions/ownership on sonar.path.temp (chown -R sonarqube:sonarqube).
2. Remove any non-directory file existing at the conf path and clear the temp directory while stopped.
3. Check disk space and inode availability on the temp filesystem.
4. Check SELinux/AppAudit policies if creation is still denied on a writable path.

Example fix

$ sudo systemctl stop sonarqube
$ ls -la /opt/sonarqube/temp
$ sudo chown -R sonarqube:sonarqube /opt/sonarqube/temp
$ sudo systemctl start sonarqube

File conf = new File(tempDir, "conf");
File parent = conf.getParentFile();
if (parent == null || !parent.canWrite() || (conf.exists() && !conf.isDirectory())) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Cannot create ES conf dir under: " + parent);
}

try { launcher.launch(...); } catch (IllegalStateException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Failed to create temporary configuration")) { fixPermissionsAndRetry(); } }

When it happens

Trigger: writeConfFiles() -> createElasticsearchConfDirectory() where File.mkdirs() fails on the ES temp conf path: parent directory missing/unwritable, a file exists at the target path, or out of inodes/space.

Common situations: Read-only container filesystems; incorrect ownership of sonar.path.temp; a stale file where the conf directory should be; SELinux/AppArmor blocking directory creation.

Understand the failure class

Background: mkdir permission denied (EACCES): failed to create directory errors explained — this error's family across 32 libraries.

Related errors

• Directory could not be created
• Could not delete Elasticsearch temporary conf directory
• Could not copy file:
• Failed to write ES configuration files
• Cannot write Elasticsearch jvm options file

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/114b0294dc024888. Report an issue: GitHub.