Enabling the Kibana login page can greatly enhance the security of your Elasticsearch and Kibana setup. By requiring users to provide credentials before accessing Kibana, you can ensure that only authorized individuals have access to your data and dashboards. In this article, I will guide you through the process of enabling the Kibana login page.
Step 1: Install and Configure Elasticsearch and Kibana
Before we can enable the Kibana login page, we first need to have Elasticsearch and Kibana installed and properly configured. If you haven’t done so already, follow the official documentation to install and configure Elasticsearch and Kibana on your system. Once you have Elasticsearch and Kibana up and running, we can move on to the next step.
Step 2: Configure Kibana to Require Login
To enable the Kibana login page, we need to modify the Kibana configuration file. Open the kibana.yml file using a text editor and locate the xpack.security.enabled setting. By default, this setting is commented out. Uncomment the line and set the value to true.
Save the kibana.yml file and restart the Kibana service for the changes to take effect. You can do this by running the appropriate command for your system, such as sudo systemctl restart kibana.
Step 3: Set Up User Authentication
With the Kibana login page enabled, we can now set up user authentication. By default, Kibana uses the built-in user authentication feature provided by Elasticsearch. To create a new user, we can use the elasticsearch-setup-passwords utility provided by Elasticsearch.
Run the following command to generate passwords for the built-in Elasticsearch users:
bin/elasticsearch-setup-passwords interactive
Follow the prompts to set passwords for the elastic, kibana_system, and logstash_system users. These passwords will be used to authenticate users when accessing Kibana.
Step 4: Accessing the Kibana Login Page
With the Kibana login page enabled and user authentication set up, you can now access the Kibana login page by visiting the URL of your Kibana instance in a web browser. You will be prompted to enter your username and password.
Once you have successfully logged in, you will have access to the full functionality of Kibana, including creating and managing visualizations, dashboards, and more.
Conclusion
Enabling the Kibana login page is a crucial step in securing your Elasticsearch and Kibana setup. By requiring users to provide credentials, you can ensure that only authorized individuals have access to your data and dashboards. Follow the steps outlined in this article to enable the Kibana login page and set up user authentication. Enjoy the added security and peace of mind that comes with protecting your Elasticsearch and Kibana instances.
