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Configure authentication credentials

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Configure authentication credentials

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

To configure authentication credentials for Packetbeat:

Create a writer role that has the following privileges:
- Cluster: manage_index_templates and monitor
- Index: write and create_index on the Packetbeat indices
You can create roles from the Management / Roles UI in Kibana or through the role API. For example, the following request creates a role named packetbeat_writer:
```
POST _xpack/security/role/packetbeat_writer
{
  "cluster": ["manage_index_templates","monitor"],
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [ "packetbeat-*" ], 
      "privileges": ["write","create_index"]
    }
  ]
}
```
If you use a custom Packetbeat index pattern, specify that pattern instead of the default packetbeat-* pattern.
Assign the writer role to the user that Packetbeat will use to connect to Elasticsearch. If you plan to load the pre-built Kibana dashboards, also assign the kibana_user role. If you plan to load machine learning jobs, assign the machine_learning_admin role.
1. To authenticate as a native user, create a user for Packetbeat to use internally and assign it the writer role, plus any other roles that are needed.
  
  You can create users from the Management / Users UI in Kibana or through the user API. For example, following request creates a user named packetbeat_internal that has the packetbeat_writer and kibana_user roles:
```
POST /_xpack/security/user/packetbeat_internal
{
  "password" : "YOUR_PASSWORD",
  "roles" : [ "packetbeat_writer","kibana_user"],
  "full_name" : "Internal Packetbeat User"
}
```
2. To use PKI authentication, assign the writer role, plus any other roles that are needed, in the role_mapping.yml configuration file. Specify the user by the distinguished name that appears in its certificate:
```
packetbeat_writer:
  - "cn=Internal Packetbeat User,ou=example,o=com"
kibana_user:
  - "cn=Internal Packetbeat User,ou=example,o=com"
```
  For more information, see Using Role Mapping Files.

In the Packetbeat configuration file, specify authentication credentials for the elasticsearch output:

To use basic authentication, configure the username and password settings. For example, the following Packetbeat output configuration uses the native packetbeat_internal user to connect to Elasticsearch:
```
output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
  username: "packetbeat_internal" 
  password: "YOUR_PASSWORD" 
```
You created this user earlier.

The example shows a hard-coded password, but you should store sensitive values in the secrets keystore.

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

output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
  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 packetbeat_writer and kibana_user roles in the role_mapping.yml configuration file on each node in the Elasticsearch cluster.

« Configure Packetbeat to use X-Pack security Grant users access to Packetbeat indices »

	You created this user earlier.
	The example shows a hard-coded password, but you should store sensitive values in the secrets keystore.