diff --git a/ansible/roles/elasticsearch/templates/elasticsearch.json.j2 b/ansible/roles/elasticsearch/templates/elasticsearch.json.j2
index d87adeb3fb..1e6c377a2e 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/elasticsearch/templates/elasticsearch.json.j2
+++ b/ansible/roles/elasticsearch/templates/elasticsearch.json.j2
@@ -7,5 +7,12 @@
             "owner": "elasticsearch",
             "perm": "0600"
         }
+    ],
+    "permissions": [
+        {
+            "path": "/var/lib/elasticsearch",
+            "owner": "elasticsearch:elasticsearch",
+            "recurse": true
+        }
     ]
 }