Saved Objects

The Saved Objects UI helps you keep track of and manage your saved objects. These objects store data for later use, including dashboards, visualizations, maps, data views, Canvas workpads, and more.

To get started, open the main menu, then click Stack Management > Saved Objects.

The Saved Objects Management Kibana privilege is required to access the Saved Objects UI.

To add the privilege, open the menu, then click Stack Management > Roles.

NOTE: Granting access to Saved Objects Management will authorize users to manage all saved objects in Kibana, including objects that are managed by applications they may not otherwise be authorized to access.

Using the import and export actions, you can move objects between different Kibana instances. This action is useful when you have multiple environments for development and production. Import and export also work well when you have a large number of objects to update and want to batch the process.

In addition to the user interface, Kibana provides beta import and export APIs if you want to automate this process.

With each release, Kibana introduces changes to the way saved objects are stored. When importing a saved object, Kibana will run the necessary migrations to ensure that the imported saved objects are compatible with the current version.

However, saved objects can only be imported into the same version, a newer minor on the same major, or the next major. Exported saved objects are not backwards compatible and cannot be imported into an older version of Kibana. See the table below for compatibility examples:

You can import multiple objects in a single operation. Click Import and navigate to the NDJSON file that represents the objects to import. By default, saved objects already in Kibana are overwritten.

You have two options for exporting saved objects.

This action creates an NDJSON with all your saved objects. By default, the NDJSON includes child objects that are related to the saved objects. Exported dashboards include their associated data views.

To copy a saved object to another space, click the actions icon and select Copy to spaces. From here, you can select the spaces in which to copy the object. You can also select whether to automatically overwrite any conflicts in the target spaces, or resolve them manually.

To share a saved object to another space — which makes a single saved object available in multiple spaces — click the actions icon and select Share to spaces. From here, you can select the spaces in which to share the object, or indicate that you want the object to be shared to all spaces, which includes those that exist now and any created in the future.

Not all saved object types are shareable. If an object is shareable, the Spaces column shows which spaces it exists in. You can also click those space icons to open the Share UI.