title: Neo4j server failed to start
body: <p>Tried starting neo4j service and got a message like </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>WARNING: Detected a limit of 1024 for maximum open files, while a
    minimum value of 40000 is recommended.
    WARNING: Problems with the
    operation of the server may occur. Please refer to the Neo4j manual
    regarding lifting this limitation. Starting Neo4j Server...
    WARNING:
    not changing user  process [17348]... waiting for server to be
    ready... BAD. Neo4j Server may have failed to start, please check the
    logs.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>The log says :</p>
  
  <pre><code>Opened [/home/ub/graph_db/neo4j-community-1.7.M01/data/graph.db/nioneo_logical.log.1] clean empty log, version=224, lastTxId=654769
  2013-03-14 11:26:28.111+0000: TM opening log: /home/ub/graph_db/neo4j-community-1.7.M01/data/graph.db/tm_tx_log.1
  2013-03-14 11:26:28.159+0000: Failed to load index provider lucene Target file[lucene.log.v318] already exists
  org.neo4j.graphdb.NotFoundException: Target file[lucene.log.v318] already exists
      at org.neo4j.kernel.impl.util.FileUtils.renameFile(FileUtils.java:165)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.DefaultFileSystemAbstraction.renameFile(DefaultFileSystemAbstraction.java:78)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.impl.transaction.xaframework.XaLogicalLog.renameLogFileToRightVersion(XaLogicalLog.java:700)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.impl.transaction.xaframework.XaLogicalLog.renameIfExists(XaLogicalLog.java:219)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.impl.transaction.xaframework.XaLogicalLog.open(XaLogicalLog.java:171)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.impl.transaction.xaframework.XaContainer.openLogicalLog(XaContainer.java:64)
      at org.neo4j.index.impl.lucene.LuceneDataSource.&lt;init&gt;(LuceneDataSource.java:229)
      at org.neo4j.index.lucene.LuceneIndexProvider.load(LuceneIndexProvider.java:71)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.AbstractGraphDatabase$DefaultKernelExtensionLoader.loadIndexImplementations(AbstractGraphDatabase.java:986)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.AbstractGraphDatabase$DefaultKernelExtensionLoader.init(AbstractGraphDatabase.java:958)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.LifeSupport$LifecycleInstance.init(LifeSupport.java:362)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.LifeSupport.init(LifeSupport.java:76)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.LifeSupport.start(LifeSupport.java:110)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.AbstractGraphDatabase.run(AbstractGraphDatabase.java:178)
      at org.neo4j.kernel.EmbeddedGraphDatabase.&lt;init&gt;(EmbeddedGraphDatabase.java:69)
      at org.neo4j.server.NeoServerBootstrapper$1.createDatabase(NeoServerBootstrapper.java:65)
      at org.neo4j.server.database.Database.createDatabase(Database.java:80)
      at org.neo4j.server.database.Database.&lt;init&gt;(Database.java:63)
      at org.neo4j.server.NeoServerWithEmbeddedWebServer.startDatabase(NeoServerWithEmbeddedWebServer.java:186)
      at org.neo4j.server.NeoServerWithEmbeddedWebServer.start(NeoServerWithEmbeddedWebServer.java:97)
      at org.neo4j.server.Bootstrapper.start(Bootstrapper.java:87)
      at org.neo4j.server.Bootstrapper.main(Bootstrapper.java:52)
  2013-03-14 11:26:28.160+0000: TM shutting down
  2013-03-14 11:26:28.382+0000: Closed log /home/biju/graph_db/neo4j-community-1.7.M01/data/graph.db/nioneo_logical.log
  2013-03-14 11:26:28.945+0000: NeoStore closed
  2013-03-14 11:26:28.946+0000: --- SHUTDOWN diagnostics START ---
  2013-03-14 11:26:28.947+0000: --- SHUTDOWN diagnostics END ---
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This started happening when I have installed ElasticSearch on my machine. There was one issue with  starting Elastic search "JAVA_HOME issue", which is sorted.</p>