Elastic Stack on Windows 11 via VMware Fusion

Local Elasticsearch + Kibana development environment on Windows 11 ARM64 (Mac M4 via VMware Fusion)

Elastic Stack on Windows 11 via VMware Fusion

Running Elasticsearch & Kibana on a Mac M4 using VMware Fusion + Windows 11 ARM64

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Overview

This repo documents the setup of a local Elasticsearch + Kibana development environment on a Mac M4 (Apple Silicon) using VMware Fusion to run Windows 11 ARM64

It includes:

• Step-by-step Windows 11 VM setup on Mac M4
• Elasticsearch & Kibana installation on Windows
• CLI comparison across macOS, Windows, and Linux
• A Jupyter notebook walkthrough

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Environment

Component	Details
Host Machine	MacBook Air M4 (Apple Silicon)
Virtualisation	VMware Fusion 13
Guest OS	Windows 11 Pro ARM64 (Build 26200)
Elasticsearch	7.16.3
Kibana	7.16.3

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Repository Structure

elastic-stack-windows/
│
├── README.md                        ← You are here
├── notebook/
│   └── elastic_stack_setup.ipynb    ← Step-by-step notebook walkthrough
├── configs/
│   ├── elasticsearch.yml            ← Sample ES config
│   └── kibana.yml                   ← Sample Kibana config
└── scripts/
    └── start-elastic.bat            ← One-click start script for Windows

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Prerequisites

• MacBook with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
• VMware Fusion 13+ (free for personal use)
• Windows 11 ARM64 ISO — download from:

  https://aka.ms/windowsinsiderpreview Select: Windows 11 Client ARM64 Insider Preview

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Quick Start

1. Create Windows 11 VM in VMware Fusion

File → New → Install from disc or image
→ Select Win11_25H2_English_Arm64.iso
→ Firmware: UEFI + Secure Boot
→ RAM: 4096 MB minimum (6144 MB recommended)
→ CPU: 2-4 cores
→ Disk: 60 GB
→ Network: Share with my Mac (NAT)

2. Install Elasticsearch (Windows PowerShell)

# Run PowerShell as Administrator
winget install Elastic.Elasticsearch

# Verify it's running
Get-Service elasticsearch*
curl http://localhost:9200

3. Install Kibana (Windows PowerShell)

# Download ZIP manually (winget has cert issues with Kibana 7.x)
# https://www.elastic.co/downloads/past-releases/kibana-7-16-3
# → Select WINDOWS

# Extract to short path (important — avoids path-too-long error)
cd "C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Downloads"
Expand-Archive -Path "kibana-7.16.3-windows-x86_64.zip" -DestinationPath "C:\kibana"

# Start Kibana
cd "C:\kibana\kibana-7.16.3-windows-x86_64\bin"
.\kibana.bat

4. Access Kibana UI

Open browser → http://localhost:5601

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Daily Start Commands

# Start Elasticsearch (Windows service — auto starts)
net start elasticsearch

# Start Kibana
cd "C:\kibana\kibana-7.16.3-windows-x86_64\bin"
.\kibana.bat

# Verify Elasticsearch
curl http://localhost:9200/_cluster/health?pretty

# Open Kibana
start http://localhost:5601

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Known Issues & Fixes

Boot loop into Windows Setup after VM restart

Edit .vmx file on Mac:
bios.bootOrder = "hdd"    ← change from "CDROM"
Also disconnect ISO:
Virtual Machine → CD/DVD → Disconnect

Kibana ZIP extraction fails (Path too long)

# Always extract to C:\kibana not inside Downloads
Expand-Archive -Path "kibana.zip" -DestinationPath "C:\kibana"

Network not connected after VMware Tools install

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /renew
# Then restart Windows

WSL2 not supported (nested virtualisation blocked on M4)

Expected on Apple Silicon inside VMware Fusion
Workaround: use winget to install ES natively on Windows

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Notebook

See notebook/elastic_stack_setup.ipynb for a full walkthrough including:

• VM configuration steps
• Installation commands
• API query examples
• KQL practice queries

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Related Resources

• Elastic Official Docs
• VMware Fusion Download
• Windows 11 ARM64 ISO

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