This topic provides answers to some frequently asked questions about the Kibana console.

How do I log on to the Kibana console? What are the username and password?

For more information about how to log on to the Kibana console, see Log on to the Kibana console. The username is elastic. The password is the one you specified when you created your Elasticsearch cluster. If you forget the password, you can reset it. For more information about the procedure and precautions for resetting the password, see Reset the access password for an Elasticsearch cluster.

What is the password of the elastic account used for?

Notice The elastic account is the administrator account of Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch and has full permissions to manage Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch clusters.
You must specify the password of the elastic account for permission verification when you use one of the following items to access your Elasticsearch cluster:
  • API or SDK
  • Kibana

Can I use the Kibana console to access Internet services such as Baidu Maps and AMAP?

No, you cannot use the Kibana console to access Internet services. You can use the Kibana console to access only the services that are deployed in virtual private clouds (VPCs).

How do I manage permissions in the Kibana console?

  • We recommend that you create users and assign roles to the users in the Kibana console of your Elasticsearch cluster. Then, use the users to perform operations on the cluster. For more information, see Use the RBAC mechanism provided by Elasticsearch X-Pack to implement access control.
  • We recommend that you do not use the elastic account to search for data. If the password of the elastic account is leaked, your cluster is exposed to security risks.
  • We recommend that you do not reset the password of the elastic account unless necessary. If you use the elastic account to manage your workloads, your requests are rejected due to authentication failures, and your workloads are interrupted after you reset the password.

What do I do if the Kibana console fails to start and displays the "Kibana server is not ready yet" message?

Possible cause Solution
Multiple Kibana system indexes exist, or data structures are changed. Delete the indexes whose names start with .kibana, and restart your Kibana node or Elasticsearch cluster in the Elasticsearch console. For more information about how to restart a cluster or node, see Restart a cluster or node.
No indexes whose names start with .kibana exist. Run the GET _cluster/settings command to check whether the Auto Indexing feature limits the creation of system indexes. If the Auto Indexing feature limits the creation of system indexes, enable the system index creation feature. Otherwise, restart your Kibana node.
Your Elasticsearch cluster is overloaded. Go to the Cluster Monitoring page of the cluster to troubleshoot the issue. The issue occurs due to one of the following causes. A solution is provided for each cause to help you resolve the issue.
  • The cluster uses data nodes with small specifications (one vCPU and 2 GiB of memory). In this case, we recommend that you upgrade the configuration of your cluster at the earliest opportunity. For more information, see Upgrade the configuration of a cluster. Data nodes with one vCPU and 2 GiB of memory are no longer available for purchase.
  • The cluster stores useless indexes that occupy large memory. In this case, delete these indexes, especially monitoring indexes. Monitoring indexes are indexes whose names start with .monitor. We recommend that you specify a retention period for monitoring indexes. For more information, see Configure monitoring indexes.
Your Kibana node is overloaded. If the issue persists after you perform the preceding operations, your Kibana node may be overloaded. In this case, submit a ticket for technical support.

What do I do if the "Maximum call stack size exceeded" error is reported when I use the Kibana console?

  • Cause

    Your cluster is in an abnormal state, and your access to the Kibana console times out. This is because large heap memory is consumed and the heap memory of your cluster is insufficient.

  • Solution

    We recommend that you reduce the size of a bulk write request or upgrade the configuration of your cluster.

An error is reported when I log on to the Kibana console, but I want to delete data from my cluster in the Kibana console. What do I do?

You can use the related APIs to access your cluster and delete data from the cluster. For more information, see Use API operations to manage an Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch cluster. For example, you can call a related API to query all indexes stored in your cluster. Then, find the indexes that you want to delete in the return result, and call a related API to delete the indexes. The following descriptions provide command examples:
  • Query all indexes stored in a cluster
    curl -u elastic:<yourEsPassword> -XGET 'http://es-cn-7pp2auqzk0023****.public.elasticsearch.aliyuncs.com:9200/_cat/indices?v'
  • Delete an index
    curl -u elastic:<yourEsPassword> -XDELETE 'http://es-cn-7pp2auqzk0023****.public.elasticsearch.aliyuncs.com:9200/<yourIndex>'

What do I do if I cannot access the Dev Tools page in the Kibana console?

Check whether the specifications of the Kibana node in your cluster are one vCPU and 2 GiB of memory. Kibana nodes with such specifications are unstable. These nodes are designed only for testing purposes and are not suitable for production environments. We recommend that you upgrade the Kibana node in your cluster at the earliest opportunity. For more information, see Upgrade the configuration of a cluster.

How do I view the information of shards and indexes in the Kibana console?

  • Run the GET _nodes/stats command to view the information of indexes. Run a command to view the information of indexes
  • On the Monitoring page, view the shards of indexes on a node, including heap memory usage. View the information of shards

When I use the elastic account to create a user in the Kibana console, the "You do not have permission to manage users" message is displayed. What do I do?

The following figure shows the error message that is displayed. Error message
Solution:
  1. Check whether the certificate expires in the Kibana console. 
    GET _license
  2. Run the GET /_cat/indices?v command to check whether multiple system indexes whose names start with .security- exist in the cluster.
    • Yes: Full data migration or synchronization may be performed. In this case, delete earlier versions of indexes whose names start with .security-.
    • No: submit a ticket for technical support.

Can I install custom plug-ins for Kibana?

No, you cannot install custom plug-ins for Kibana. Kibana versions earlier than V7.0 support only built-in plug-ins provided in the Kibana console. Kibana V7.0 and later do not support plug-ins.

In which Kibana versions can I change the language of the Kibana console?

In Kibana V6.7.0 and later, you can change the language of the Kibana console. The Kibana console supports two languages: English and Chinese. After you specify a language, the Kibana console is displayed in this language. You can change the language in the Basic Configuration section of the Kibana Configuration page. For more information, see Configure the language of the Kibana console.