- We recommend installing OpenSearch on RHEL- or Debian-based Linux distributions that use [systemd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemd), such as CentOS, Amazon Linux 2, and Ubuntu (LTS). OpenSearch should work on many Linux distributions, but we only test a handful.
To use a different Java installation, set the `OPENSEARCH_JAVA_HOME` environment variable to the Java install location. We recommend Java 11 (LTS), but OpenSearch also works with Java 8.
OpenSearch version | Compatible Java versions | Recommended operating systems
:--- | :--- | :---
1.x | 8, 11 | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8; CentOS 7, 8; Amazon Linux 2; Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04