The _status API has been deprecated (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.0/indices-status.html).
$ ./bin/search --trace init >>> [2] <http> http://localhost:9200/phabricator/_status/ <<< [2] <http> 8,539 us [2015-11-13 14:19:16] EXCEPTION: (HTTPFutureHTTPResponseStatus) [HTTP/400] {"error":{"root_cause":[{"type":"illegal_argument_exception","reason":"No feature for name [_status]"}],"type":"illegal_argument_exception","reason":"No feature for name [_status]"},"status":400} at [<phutil>/src/future/http/BaseHTTPFuture.php:339] arcanist(head=master, ref.master=9dd6eafb5254), phabricator(head=master, ref.master=19e57165a730), phabricator-cas(head=master, ref.master=45911d8282c9), phabricator-chinese(head=master, ref.master=86e7c7a70f3d), phutil(head=master, ref.master=e9ed72483a14) #0 BaseHTTPFuture::parseRawHTTPResponse(string) called at [<phutil>/src/future/http/HTTPSFuture.php:415] #1 HTTPSFuture::isReady() called at [<phutil>/src/future/Future.php:37] #2 Future::resolve() called at [<phutil>/src/future/http/BaseHTTPFuture.php:279] #3 BaseHTTPFuture::resolvex() called at [<phabricator>/src/applications/search/engine/PhabricatorElasticSearchEngine.php:425] #4 PhabricatorElasticSearchEngine::executeRequest(string, array) called at [<phabricator>/src/applications/search/engine/PhabricatorElasticSearchEngine.php:286] #5 PhabricatorElasticSearchEngine::indexExists() called at [<phabricator>/src/applications/search/management/PhabricatorSearchManagementInitWorkflow.php:19] #6 PhabricatorSearchManagementInitWorkflow::execute(PhutilArgumentParser) called at [<phutil>/src/parser/argument/PhutilArgumentParser.php:406] #7 PhutilArgumentParser::parseWorkflowsFull(array) called at [<phutil>/src/parser/argument/PhutilArgumentParser.php:301] #8 PhutilArgumentParser::parseWorkflows(array) called at [<phabricator>/scripts/search/manage_search.php:21]
And there is a setup issue called Elasticsearch Misconfigured which looks the same cause.