Monitoring settings in Elasticsearch

By default, Elasticsearch monitoring features are enabled but data collection is disabled. To enable data collection, use the xpack.monitoring.collection.enabled setting.

Except where noted otherwise, these settings can be dynamically updated on a live cluster with the cluster-update-settings API.

To adjust how monitoring data is displayed in the monitoring UI, configure xpack.monitoring settings in kibana.yml. To control how monitoring data is collected from Logstash, configure monitoring settings in logstash.yml.

For more information, see Monitor a cluster.

xpack.monitoring.enabled

(Static) This setting has no effect.

The xpack.monitoring.collection settings control how data is collected from your Elasticsearch nodes.

xpack.monitoring.collection.enabled

(Dynamic) Set to true to enable the collection of monitoring data. When this setting is false (default), Elasticsearch monitoring data is not collected and all monitoring data from other sources such as Kibana, Beats, and Logstash is ignored.

xpack.monitoring.collection.interval

(Dynamic) Setting to -1 to disable data collection is no longer supported beginning with 7.0.0.

Controls how often data samples are collected. Defaults to 10s. If you modify the collection interval, set the monitoring.ui.min_interval_seconds option in kibana.yml to the same value.

xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.collection.enabled

(Dynamic) Controls whether statistics about your Elasticsearch cluster should be collected. Defaults to true. This is different from xpack.monitoring.collection.enabled, which allows you to enable or disable all monitoring collection. However, this setting simply disables the collection of Elasticsearch data while still allowing other data (e.g., Kibana, Logstash, Beats, or APM Server monitoring data) to pass through this cluster.

xpack.monitoring.collection.cluster.stats.timeout

(Dynamic) Timeout for collecting the cluster statistics, in time units. Defaults to 10s.

xpack.monitoring.collection.node.stats.timeout

(Dynamic) Timeout for collecting the node statistics, in time units. Defaults to 10s.

xpack.monitoring.collection.indices

(Dynamic) Controls which indices the monitoring features collect data from. Defaults to all indices. Specify the index names as a comma-separated list, for example test1,test2,test3. Names can include wildcards, for example test*. You can explicitly exclude indices by prepending -. For example test*,-test3 will monitor all indexes that start with test except for test3. System indices like .security* or .kibana* always start with a . and generally should be monitored. Consider adding .* to the list of indices ensure monitoring of system indices. For example: .*,test*,-test3

xpack.monitoring.collection.index.stats.timeout

(Dynamic) Timeout for collecting index statistics, in time units. Defaults to 10s.

xpack.monitoring.collection.index.recovery.active_only

(Dynamic) Controls whether or not all recoveries are collected. Set to true to collect only active recoveries. Defaults to false.

xpack.monitoring.collection.index.recovery.timeout

(Dynamic) Timeout for collecting the recovery information, in time units. Defaults to 10s.

xpack.monitoring.history.duration

(Dynamic) Retention duration beyond which the indices created by a monitoring exporter are automatically deleted, in time units. Defaults to 7d (7 days).

This setting has a minimum value of 1d (1 day) to ensure that something is being monitored and it cannot be disabled.

Important

This setting currently impacts only local-type exporters. Indices created using the http exporter are not deleted automatically.

xpack.monitoring.exporters

(Static) Configures where the agent stores monitoring data. By default, the agent uses a local exporter that indexes monitoring data on the cluster where it is installed. Use an HTTP exporter to send data to a separate monitoring cluster. For more information, see Local exporter settings, HTTP exporter settings, and How it works.

The local exporter is the default exporter used by monitoring features. As the name is meant to imply, it exports data to the local cluster, which means that there is not much needed to be configured.

If you do not supply any exporters, then the monitoring features automatically create one for you. If any exporter is provided, then no default is added.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.my_local:
  type: local
		

type

The value for a Local exporter must always be local and it is required.

use_ingest

Whether to supply a placeholder pipeline to the cluster and a pipeline processor with every bulk request. The default value is true. If disabled, then it means that it will not use pipelines, which means that a future release cannot automatically upgrade bulk requests to future-proof them.

cluster_alerts.management.enabled

Whether to create cluster alerts for this cluster. The default value is true. To use this feature, Watcher must be enabled. If you have a basic license, cluster alerts are not displayed.

wait_master.timeout

Time to wait for the master node to setup local exporter for monitoring, in time units. After that wait period, the non-master nodes warn the user for possible missing configuration. Defaults to 30s.

The following lists settings that can be supplied with the http exporter. All settings are shown as what follows the name you select for your exporter:

xpack.monitoring.exporters.my_remote:
  type: http
  host: ["host:port", ...]
		

type

The value for an HTTP exporter must always be http and it is required.

host

Host supports multiple formats, both as an array or as a single value. Supported formats include hostname, hostname:port, http://hostname http://hostname:port, https://hostname, and https://hostname:port. Hosts cannot be assumed. The default scheme is always http and the default port is always 9200 if not supplied as part of the host string.

xpack.monitoring.exporters:
  example1:
    type: http
    host: "10.1.2.3"
  example2:
    type: http
    host: ["<HOST_IP>"]
  example3:
    type: http
    host: ["10.1.2.5", "10.1.2.6"]
  example4:
    type: http
    host: ["HOST_IP>:9200"]
		

auth.username

The username is required if auth.secure_password is supplied.

auth.secure_password

(Secure, reloadable) The password for the auth.username.

connection.timeout

Amount of time that the HTTP connection is supposed to wait for a socket to open for the request, in time units. The default value is 6s.

connection.read_timeout

Amount of time that the HTTP connection is supposed to wait for a socket to send back a response, in time units. The default value is 10 * connection.timeout (60s if neither are set).

ssl

Each HTTP exporter can define its own TLS / SSL settings or inherit them. See X-Pack monitoring TLS/SSL settings.

proxy.base_path

The base path to prefix any outgoing request, such as /base/path (e.g., bulk requests would then be sent as /base/path/_bulk). There is no default value.

headers

Optional headers that are added to every request, which can assist with routing requests through proxies.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.my_remote:
  headers:
    X-My-Array: [abc, def, xyz]
    X-My-Header: abc123
		

Array-based headers are sent n times where n is the size of the array. Content-Type and Content-Length cannot be set. Any headers created by the monitoring agent will override anything defined here.

index.name.time_format

A mechanism for changing the default date suffix for daily monitoring indices. The default format is yyyy.MM.dd. For example, .monitoring-es-7-2021.08.26.

use_ingest

Whether to supply a placeholder pipeline to the monitoring cluster and a pipeline processor with every bulk request. The default value is true. If disabled, then it means that it will not use pipelines, which means that a future release cannot automatically upgrade bulk requests to future-proof them.

cluster_alerts.management.enabled

Whether to create cluster alerts for this cluster. The default value is true. To use this feature, Watcher must be enabled. If you have a basic license, cluster alerts are not displayed.

cluster_alerts.management.blacklist

Prevents the creation of specific cluster alerts. It also removes any applicable watches that already exist in the current cluster.

You can add any of the following watch identifiers to the list of blocked alerts:

• elasticsearch_cluster_status
• elasticsearch_version_mismatch
• elasticsearch_nodes
• kibana_version_mismatch
• logstash_version_mismatch
• xpack_license_expiration

For example: ["elasticsearch_version_mismatch","xpack_license_expiration"].

You can configure the following TLS/SSL settings.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.supported_protocols

(Static) Supported protocols with versions. Valid protocols: SSLv2Hello, SSLv3, TLSv1, TLSv1.1, TLSv1.2, TLSv1.3. If the JVM’s SSL provider supports TLSv1.3, the default is TLSv1.3,TLSv1.2,TLSv1.1. Otherwise, the default is TLSv1.2,TLSv1.1.

Elasticsearch relies on your JDK’s implementation of SSL and TLS. View Supported SSL/TLS versions by JDK version for more information.

Note

If xpack.security.fips_mode.enabled is true, you cannot use SSLv2Hello or SSLv3. See FIPS 140-2.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.verification_mode

(Static) Controls the verification of certificates.

Defaults to full.

Valid values:

• full: Validates that the provided certificate: has an issue date that’s within the not_before and not_after dates; chains to a trusted Certificate Authority (CA); has a hostname or IP address that matches the names within the certificate.
• certificate: Validates the provided certificate and verifies that it’s signed by a trusted authority (CA), but doesn’t check the certificate hostname.
• none: Performs no certificate validation.

Important

Setting certificate validation to none disables many security benefits of SSL/TLS, which is very dangerous. Only set this value if instructed by Elastic Support as a temporary diagnostic mechanism when attempting to resolve TLS errors.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.cipher_suites

(Static) Supported cipher suites vary depending on which version of Java you use. For example, for version 12 the default value is TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA.

For more information, see Oracle’s Java Cryptography Architecture documentation.

The following settings are used to specify a private key, certificate, and the trusted certificates that should be used when communicating over an SSL/TLS connection. A private key and certificate are optional and would be used if the server requires client authentication for PKI authentication.

When using PEM encoded files, use the following settings:

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.key

(Static) Path to a PEM encoded file containing the private key.

If HTTP client authentication is required, it uses this file. You cannot use this setting and ssl.keystore.path at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.key_passphrase

(Static) The passphrase that is used to decrypt the private key. Since the key might not be encrypted, this value is optional. Prefer ssl.secure_key_passphrase instead.

You cannot use this setting and ssl.secure_key_passphrase at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.secure_key_passphrase

(Secure) The passphrase that is used to decrypt the private key. Since the key might not be encrypted, this value is optional.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.certificate

(Static) Specifies the path for the PEM encoded certificate (or certificate chain) that is associated with the key.

This setting can be used only if ssl.key is set.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.certificate_authorities

(Static) List of paths to PEM encoded certificate files that should be trusted.

This setting and ssl.truststore.path cannot be used at the same time.

When using Java keystore files (JKS), which contain the private key, certificate and certificates that should be trusted, use the following settings:

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.path

(Static) The path for the keystore file that contains a private key and certificate.

It must be either a Java keystore (jks) or a PKCS#12 file. You cannot use this setting and ssl.key at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.password

(Static) The password for the keystore. Prefer ssl.keystore.secure_password instead.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.secure_password

(Secure) The password for the keystore.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.key_password

(Static) The password for the key in the keystore. The default is the keystore password. Prefer ssl.keystore.secure_key_password instead.

You cannot use this setting and ssl.keystore.secure_password at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.secure_key_password

(Secure) The password for the key in the keystore. The default is the keystore password.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.truststore.path

(Static) The path for the keystore that contains the certificates to trust. It must be either a Java keystore (jks) or a PKCS#12 file.

You cannot use this setting and ssl.certificate_authorities at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.truststore.password

(Static) The password for the truststore. Prefer ssl.truststore.secure_password instead.

You cannot use this setting and ssl.truststore.secure_password at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.truststore.secure_password

(Secure) Password for the truststore.

Elasticsearch can be configured to use PKCS#12 container files (.p12 or .pfx files) that contain the private key, certificate and certificates that should be trusted.

PKCS#12 files are configured in the same way as Java keystore files:

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.path

(Static) The path for the keystore file that contains a private key and certificate.

It must be either a Java keystore (jks) or a PKCS#12 file. You cannot use this setting and ssl.key at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.type

(Static) The format of the keystore file. It must be either jks or PKCS12. If the keystore path ends in ".p12", ".pfx", or ".pkcs12", this setting defaults to PKCS12. Otherwise, it defaults to jks.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.password

(Static) The password for the keystore. Prefer ssl.keystore.secure_password instead.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.secure_password

(Secure) The password for the keystore.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.key_password

(Static) The password for the key in the keystore. The default is the keystore password. Prefer ssl.keystore.secure_key_password instead.

You cannot use this setting and ssl.keystore.secure_password at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.keystore.secure_key_password

(Secure) The password for the key in the keystore. The default is the keystore password.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.truststore.path

(Static) The path for the keystore that contains the certificates to trust. It must be either a Java keystore (jks) or a PKCS#12 file.

You cannot use this setting and ssl.certificate_authorities at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.truststore.type

(Static) Set this to PKCS12 to indicate that the truststore is a PKCS#12 file.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.truststore.password

(Static) The password for the truststore. Prefer ssl.truststore.secure_password instead.

You cannot use this setting and ssl.truststore.secure_password at the same time.

xpack.monitoring.exporters.$NAME.ssl.truststore.secure_password

(Secure) Password for the truststore.