stack

Full Elastic Stack with Connectors

We know that setting up the Connectors service may look a bit daunting, so to help with this, we pulled together a set of scripts to enable a user to get up and running quickly. Here, we provide an example Connectors configuration, a Docker Compose file, and a bash script to run a stack comprising of Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Connectors. Once running, you can start to ingest data into an Elasticsearch instance via Elastic Connectors. These scripts can also be used as a starting place for adding Connectors to your production environment.

Contents

• Prerequisites
• Running the Stack
• Prompted Configuration
• Manual Configuration
• Script command reference
  • run-stack.sh
  • stop-stack.sh
  • view-connectors-logs.sh

Prerequisites

• Linux or macOS (Although Windows can run the Connectors service, it is not currently supported via these scripts)
• Python 3.10
• Docker with Docker Compose Installed
• It is recommended to run Docker with at least 4GB of available RAM.

Running the Stack

The scripts use a default password for the elastic user, however, if you wish to use a different password, you can specify the environment variable ELASTIC_PASSWORD before running the script. E.g.:

ELASTIC_PASSWORD="my_new_password" ./scripts/stack/run-stack.sh

Note that this method of setting the password, or using the default password, is not secure and should not be used in a production environment without proper steps taken to ensure the password is secured. This can include editing the docker-compose.yml file and the set-env.sh script to hardcode a different password amongst other ways.

Alternatively, if you do not wish to use a different set of credentials, or an API key for authentication, you can run the ./copy-config.sh script to create a copy of the default config.yml.example file, and edit the resulting file that will be created in the scripts/stack/connectors-config folder.

By default, these Connector scripts will use a SNAPSHOT version of the Docker image. The version is defined in the VERSION file. If you do not wish to use a SNAPSHOT version, add the --no-snapshot flag when you run the script. You can also specify an alternative base version by setting the environment variable CONNECTORS_VERSION before running the script. e.g.:

CONNECTORS_VERSION=8.11.2.0 ./scripts/stack/run-stack.sh --no-snapshot

When running the script, the Elasticsearch and Kibana versions will use the same stack version as the CONNECTORS_VERSION, however, you can additionally specify these before running:

ELASTICSEARCH_VERSION=8.11.2 KIBANA_VERSION=8.11.2 CONNECTORS_VERSION=8.11.2.0 ./scripts/stack/run-stack.sh

Once the stack is running, you can monitor the logs from the Connectors instance by running:

./scripts/stack/view-connectors-logs.sh

or:

docker-compose -f ./scripts/stack/docker/docker-compose.yml logs -f elastic-connectors

Prompted Configuration

If you run the run-stack.sh command without any flags, by default the script will ask if you want to set up the connectors configuration. If you enter "y" to run the configurator, it will take you through a set of prompts using the Connectors CLI to create a new index and connector.

The resulting configuration will be saved to the scripts/stack/connectors-config/config.yml file that is used to start the Connectors container. Note that using the configurator, it will modify the scripts/stack/connectors-config/config.yml file. You can restore it by copying over the example config.yml.example file to config.yml in the directory.

If you configured a new connector, you will need to go into Kibana to start or schedule a sync. Running the scripts, you can log in at http://localhost:5601/ with the username elastic and your password (changeme is the default, unless you specified a different ELASTIC_PASSWORD earlier). Then, to complete this in Kibana:

• From the main menu, click Search > Content > Connectors
• Click on your connector
• Optionally, change the name or add a description
• Click on the "Configuration" tab
  • Note, the API key will be already pre-configured, and you do not need to generate a new one
  • Ensure your connector settings are the way you want, if not edit them to their correct values
  • Finally, set your schedule and sync

Note - some of the connectors require a valid Elasticsearch license above basic. To see which connectors require a higher license tier, see the Connectors reference.

Manual Configuration

Instead of using the CLI-based configurator while running the run-stack.sh script, you can choose to manually provide your connectors configurations and use those instead. To do this and still use the run-stack.sh script:

1. Run the stack without the connectors service:
   1. Run ./scripts/stack/run-stack.sh --no-connectors to run the full stack without the Connectors service
   2. From the main menu of Kibana, go to "Content", "Indices", and create a new index for your connector
   3. Choose the "Connector" index type
   4. Select the connector type
   5. Set the index name
   6. Generate a new API Key, and copy it somewhere safe
   7. Set Connector name and description (optional)
   8. Copy the resulting connector_id, service_type, and api_key into a new entry in the scripts/stack/connectors-config/config.yml file
   9. Repeat as necessary for all the connectors you wish to create
2. run ./scripts/stack/run-stack.sh --no-configuration --connectors-only again to run the Connectors service without prompting for configuration. Once running:
   1. From the main menu of Kibana, click Search > Content > Connectors
   2. Click on your connector
   3. Click on the "Configuration" tab
   4. Complete the configuration and optionally start your sync
   5. Repeat these steps for all the connectors you created

Script command reference

run-stack.sh

This is the main script that sets up and runs an Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Connectors stack.

./scripts/stack/run-stack.sh

By default, the script will start an Elasticsearch and Kibana instance, then it will ask the user if they want to configure the connectors, and finally start the connectors service.

Command line options:

• -u | --update-images: perform a fresh pull on the docker images
• -n | --no-connectors: do not run the connectors service
• -x | --no-configuration: do not ask to run the connectors configuration, but still run the service
• -c | --connectors-only: only start the connectors service. Useful if Elasticsearch and Kibana are already running
• -s | --no-snapshot: by default, the scripts will use SNAPSHOT versions of the Docker images. Specify this to not use a SNAPSHOT.

stop-stack.sh

This script is used to stop the stack, and optionally remove any data volumes and reset the configuration file.

./scripts/stack/stop-stack.sh

Command line options:

• -v | --remove-volumes: delete all data volumes on stop
• -r | --reset-configuration: removes the current configuration

view-connectors-logs.sh

Views the Connectors Docker container logs, optionally continously watching the log output.

./scripts/stack/view-connectors-logs.sh

Command line options:

• -w | --watch-logs: watching the log output. Without this flag, only up to the last 20 log lines will be shown.