viewing-metrics.asciidoc

View monitoring data in {kib}

After you collect monitoring data for one or more products in the {stack}, you can configure {kib} to retrieve that information and display it in on the *Stack Monitoring* page. At a minimum, you must have monitoring data for the {es} production cluster. Once that data exists, {kib} can display monitoring data for other products in the cluster. TIP: If you use a separate monitoring cluster to store the monitoring data, it is strongly recommended that you use a separate {kib} instance to view it. If you log in to {kib} using SAML, Kerberos, PKI, OpenID Connect, or token authentication providers, a dedicated {kib} instance is *required*. The security tokens that are used in these contexts are cluster-specific, therefore you cannot use a single {kib} instance to connect to both production and monitoring clusters. For more information about the recommended configuration, see {ref}/monitoring-overview.html[Monitoring overview]. . Identify where to retrieve monitoring data from. + -- If the monitoring data is stored on a dedicated monitoring cluster, it is accessible even when the cluster you're monitoring is not. If you have at least a gold license, you can send data from multiple clusters to the same monitoring cluster and view them all through the same instance of {kib}. By default, data is retrieved from the cluster specified in the `elasticsearch.hosts` value in the `kibana.yml` file. If you want to retrieve it from a different cluster, set `monitoring.ui.elasticsearch.hosts`. To learn more about typical monitoring architectures, see {ref}/how-monitoring-works.html[How monitoring works] and {ref}/monitoring-production.html[Monitoring in a production environment]. -- . Verify that `monitoring.ui.enabled` is set to `true`, which is the default value, in the `kibana.yml` file. For more information, see <>. . If the Elastic {security-features} are enabled on the monitoring cluster, you must provide a user ID and password so {kib} can retrieve the data. .. Create a user that has the `monitoring_user` {ref}/built-in-roles.html[built-in role] on the monitoring cluster. + NOTE: Make sure the `monitoring_user` role has read privileges on `metrics-*` indices. If it doesn't, create a new role with `read` and `read_cross_cluster` index privileges on `metrics-*`, then assign the new role (along with `monitoring_user`) to your user. .. Add the `monitoring.ui.elasticsearch.username` and `monitoring.ui.elasticsearch.password` settings in the `kibana.yml` file. If these settings are omitted, {kib} uses the `elasticsearch.username` and `elasticsearch.password` setting values. For more information, see {kibana-ref}/using-kibana-with-security.html[Configuring security in {kib}]. . (Optional) Configure {kib} to encrypt communications between the {kib} server and the monitoring cluster. See <>. . If the Elastic {security-features} are enabled on the {kib} server, only users that have the authority to access {kib} indices and to read the monitoring indices can use the monitoring dashboards. + -- NOTE: These users must exist on the monitoring cluster. If you are accessing a remote monitoring cluster, you must use credentials that are valid on both the {kib} server and the monitoring cluster. -- .. Create users that have the `monitoring_user` and `kibana_admin` {ref}/built-in-roles.html[built-in roles]. If you created a new role with read privileges on `metrics-*` indices, also assign that role to the users. . Open {kib} in your web browser. + -- By default, if you are running {kib} locally, go to `http://localhost:5601/`. If the Elastic {security-features} are enabled, log in. -- . Go to the *Stack Monitoring* page using the <>. + -- If data collection is disabled, you are prompted to turn on data collection. If {es} {security-features} are enabled, you must have `manage` cluster privileges to turn on data collection. NOTE: If you are using a separate monitoring cluster, you do not need to turn on data collection. The dashboards appear when there is data in the monitoring cluster. -- You'll see cluster alerts that require your attention and a summary of the available monitoring metrics for {es}, Logstash, {kib}, and Beats. To view additional information, click the Overview, Nodes, Indices, or Instances links. See <>. [role="screenshot"] image::images/monitoring-dashboard.png[Monitoring dashboard] If you encounter problems, see <>.