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WARNING: Version 6.2 of Metricbeat has passed its EOL date.

This documentation is no longer being maintained and may be removed. If you are running this version, we strongly advise you to upgrade. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

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Elastic Docs ›Metricbeat Reference [6.2] ›Securing Metricbeat ›Metricbeat and X-Pack Security

Configuring Authentication Credentials for Metricbeat

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Configuring Authentication Credentials for Metricbeat

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When sending data to a secured cluster through the elasticsearch output, Metricbeat must either provide basic authentication credentials or present a client certificate.

To configure authentication credentials for Metricbeat:

  1. Create a role that has the manage_index_templates and monitor cluster privileges, and read, write, and create_index privileges for the indices that Metricbeat creates. You can create roles from the Management / Roles UI in Kibana or through the role API. For example, the following request creates a metricbeat_writer role:

    POST _xpack/security/role/metricbeat_writer
{
  "cluster": ["manage_index_templates", "monitor"],
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [ "metricbeat-*" ], 
      "privileges": ["write","create_index"]
    }
  ]
}

    If you use a custom Metricbeat index pattern, specify that pattern instead of the default metricbeat-* pattern.

  2. Assign the writer role to the user that Metricbeat will use to connect to Elasticsearch:

    1. To authenticate as a native user, create a user for the Metricbeat to use internally and assign it the writer role. You can create users from the Management / Users UI in Kibana or through the user API. For example, the following request creates a metricbeat_internal user that has the metricbeat_writer role:

      POST /_xpack/security/user/metricbeat_internal
{
  "password" : "x-pack-test-password",
  "roles" : [ "metricbeat_writer"],
  "full_name" : "Internal Metricbeat User"
}

    2. To authenticate using PKI authentication, assign the writer role to the internal Metricbeat user in the role_mapping.yml configuration file. Specify the user by the distinguished name that appears in its certificate.

      metricbeat_writer:
  - "cn=Internal Metricbeat User,ou=example,o=com"

      For more information, see Using Role Mapping Files.

  3. Configure authentication credentials for the elasticsearch output in the Metricbeat configuration file:

    1. To use basic authentication, configure the username and password settings. For example, the following Metricbeat output configuration uses the native metricbeat_internal user to connect to Elasticsearch:

      output.elasticsearch:
    hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
    index: "metricbeat"
    username: "metricbeat_internal"
    password: "x-pack-test-password"

    2. To use PKI authentication, configure the certificate and key settings:

      output.elasticsearch:
    hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
    index: "metricbeat"
    ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem" 
    ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"

      The distinguished name (DN) in the certificate must be mapped to the writer role in the role_mapping.yml configuration file on each node in the Elasticsearch cluster.
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