Improve usability of remote cross cluster search in Kibana #99100
Description
Describe the feature:
Currently remote clusters can be included through index patterns, but this causes various usability issues, especially when multiple remote clusters are configured. The biggest issue is that Index Patterns become tightly coupled to remote cluster connections, so you need multiple patterns, such as:
- Local Only:
some-local-pattern - All remotes:
*:index-pattern - Some remotes:
remoteA:index-pattern, remoteB:index-pattern - Some remotes:
remoteB:index-pattern, remoteC:index-pattern
Given this complexity, users often resort to building their visualizations/dashboards against *:index-pattern. While this works, it makes queries unnecessarily slow in certain circumstances are prohibits the users from
It would be nice if there was the ability to make an optional feature during Index Pattern creation. These Index Patterns could be called "Dynamic Cross Cluster Index Pattern" and a defined by a simple pattern (i.e. no leading cluster name). Then individual local and remotes can be turned on/off from the query bar. The default of what remotes are enabled can be saved with the dashboard/visualization similar to how filters cascade.
Describe a specific use case for the feature:
Users want to build dashboards/visualizations that can selectively be used for only local data, a subset of clusters (both local/remote), or all clusters. This allows users to get better performance for situations where they know data only resides in a certain cluster. It also provides users a fallback for situations where a remote cluster is not performing well or having other connectivity issues (right now, often the query just has a timeout in those situations).