Skip to main content
Version: 3.1

Install Elasticsearch and Kibana with Portworx on Kubernetes

The following instructions are a step by step guide for deploying the Elasticsearch stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana) with Portworx on Kubernetes.

Elasticsearch is the distributed search and analytics engine that provides a unified data store for solutions built on the Elastic Stack. Refer to the Elasticsearch documentation for more details.

Prerequisites​

  • A Kubernetes cluster running version 1.19 or newer.
  • A Portworx installation on your Kubernetes cluster. For details, see Install Portworx.

Install Elasticsearch​

Portworx provides volumes to the Elasticsearch nodes, and it offers a set of storage classes for various use cases. This page uses px-csi-db for Elasticsearch pods, which creates Portworx volumes with three replicas when referenced by a volumeClaimTemplate. Refer to StorageClass Parameters for more information about StorageClass parameters that Portworx supports.

Install and deploy an Elasticsearch cluster​

In this section, you will create a three node Elasticsearch cluster and a Kibana instance that are backed by Portworx volumes.

  1. Install custom resource definitions:

    kubectl create -f https://download.elastic.co/downloads/eck/2.4.0/crds.yaml
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/agents.agent.k8s.elastic.co created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/apmservers.apm.k8s.elastic.co created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/beats.beat.k8s.elastic.co created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/elasticmapsservers.maps.k8s.elastic.co created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/elasticsearches.elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/enterprisesearches.enterprisesearch.k8s.elastic.co created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/kibanas.kibana.k8s.elastic.co created

  2. Install the Elasticsearch Operator:

    kubectl apply -f https://download.elastic.co/downloads/eck/2.4.0/operator.yaml
    namespace/elastic-system created
    serviceaccount/elastic-operator created
    secret/elastic-webhook-server-cert created
    configmap/elastic-operator created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/elastic-operator created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/elastic-operator-view created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/elastic-operator-edit created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/elastic-operator created
    service/elastic-webhook-server created
    statefulset.apps/elastic-operator created
    validatingwebhookconfiguration.admissionregistration.k8s.io/elastic-webhook.k8s.elastic.co created

    Verify the Operator pod status and ensure that it shows as READY:

    kubectl -n elastic-system get pods -lcontrol-plane=elastic-operator
    NAME                 READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    elastic-operator-0   1/1     Running   0          2m42

  3. Deploy an Elasticsearch cluster. Copy and save the following spec as a YAML file, changing the highlighted values as necessary:

    apiVersion: elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/v1
    kind: Elasticsearch
    metadata:
      name: elasticsearch
      namespace: elastic-system
    spec:
      version: 8.4.3
      nodeSets:
      - name: node
        count: 3
        config:
          node.store.allow_mmap: false
        volumeClaimTemplates:
        - metadata:
            name: elasticsearch-data # Do not change this name unless you set up a volume mount for the data path.
          spec:
            accessModes:
            - ReadWriteOnce
            resources:
              requests:
                storage: 50Gi # Change the Volumes size as required.
            storageClassName: px-csi-db  # Use appropriate StorageClass name.

    Run the following command to apply the spec:

    kubectl apply -f <filename.yaml>
    elasticsearch.elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/elasticsearch created

  4. Monitor the Elasticsearch cluster until HEALTH shows as green and PHASE shows as READY:

    kubectl -n elastic-system get elasticsearch
    NAME            HEALTH   NODES   VERSION   PHASE   AGE
    elasticsearch   green    3       8.4.3     Ready   3m21s

  5. To check the status of Elasticsearch pods, run the following command:

    watch kubectl -n elastic-system get pods --selector='elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/cluster-name=elasticsearch'
    NAME                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    elasticsearch-es-node-0   1/1     Running   0          5m
    elasticsearch-es-node-1   1/1     Running   0          5m
    elasticsearch-es-node-2   1/1     Running   0          5m

  6. To access the logs for one of the Elasticsearch node pods, run the following command:

    kubectl -n elastic-system logs -f elasticsearch-es-node-0

Access your Elasticsearch cluster​

Now that you've installed and deployed your Elasticsearch cluster, you're ready to access it. The deployment automatically creates a ClusterIP Service for your cluster. This example uses the service elasticsearch-es-http endpoint to provide access within the Kubernetes cluster.

  1. To get the Name of the service and the TargetPort, run the following command:

    kubectl -n elastic-system describe service elasticsearch-es-http
    Name:              <service-name>
    Namespace:         elastic-system
    Labels:            common.k8s.elastic.co/type=elasticsearch
                      elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/cluster-name=elasticsearch
    Annotations:       <none>
    Selector:          common.k8s.elastic.co/type=elasticsearch,elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/cluster-name=elasticsearch
    Type:              ClusterIP
    IP Family Policy:  SingleStack
    IP Families:       IPv4
    IP:                10.104.167.40
    IPs:               10.104.167.40
    Port:              https  9200/TCP
    TargetPort:        <port>/TCP
    Endpoints:         192.168.143.10:9200,192.168.147.138:9200,192.168.45.31:9200
    Session Affinity:  None
    Events:            <none>

  2. Fetch the credentials and save them as an environment variable. A default user named elastic is automatically created with the password stored in a Kubernetes secret:

    ESPASSWORD=$(kubectl -n elastic-system get secret elasticsearch-es-elastic-user -o go-template='{{.data.elastic | base64decode}}')

  3. Access your cluster through the elasticsearch-es-http service endpoint URL:

    kubectl exec elasticsearch-es-node-0 -n elastic-system -- curl -u "elastic:$ESPASSWORD" -k "https://<service-name>:<port>"
    {
      "name" : "elasticsearch-es-node-2",
      "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
      "cluster_uuid" : "3CwyPyaMREaIB-Bm8qXQ8Q",
      "version" : {
        "number" : "8.4.3",
        "build_flavor" : "default",
        "build_type" : "docker",
        "build_hash" : "42f05b9372a9a4a470db3b52817899b99a76ee73",
        "build_date" : "2022-10-04T07:17:24.662462378Z",
        "build_snapshot" : false,
        "lucene_version" : "9.3.0",
        "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "7.17.0",
        "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "7.0.0"
      },
      "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
    }

Insert and query a sample index​

Insert some sample data and query the index to verify that the cluster is healthy.

  1. List Elasticsearch cluster nodes:

    kubectl exec elasticsearch-es-node-0 -n elastic-system -- curl -u "elastic:$ESPASSWORD"  -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/_cat/nodes?v"
    ip              heap.percent ram.percent cpu load_1m load_5m load_15m node.role   master name
    192.168.143.10            35          75   1    1.90    1.85     2.42 cdfhilmrstw -      elasticsearch-es-node-2
    192.168.147.138           15          77   1    1.19    1.33     1.52 cdfhilmrstw -      elasticsearch-es-node-0
    192.168.45.31             14          77   1    1.33    1.21     1.59 cdfhilmrstw *      elasticsearch-es-node-1

  2. Insert a new index:

    kubectl exec elasticsearch-es-node-0 -n elastic-system -- curl -XPUT -u "elastic:$ESPASSWORD"  -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/customer?pretty&pretty"
    {
      "acknowledged" : true,
      "shards_acknowledged" : true,
      "index" : "customer"
    }

  3. Query indexes:

    kubectl exec elasticsearch-es-node-0 -n elastic-system -- curl -XGET -u "elastic:$ESPASSWORD"  -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/_cat/indices?v&pretty"
    health status index    uuid                   pri rep docs.count docs.deleted store.size pri.store.size
    green  open   customer VX3K32-lQxSfOYl_1dyocQ   1   1          0            0       450b           225b

See result on Portworx volumes​

In this section, you will view how the Elasticsearch cluster uses Portworx volumes.

Portworx volumes are created with three replicas for storing indexes and documents for Elasticsearch. This is based on the StorageClass definition.

  1. List the Persistent Volumes:

    kubectl get pv
    NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS   CLAIM                                                       STORAGECLASS   REASON   AGE
    pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-7f678ca8ba07   50Gi       RWO            Delete           Bound    elastic-system/elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-2   px-csi-db               12m
    pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-d1e920903be2   50Gi       RWO            Delete           Bound    elastic-system/elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-1   px-csi-db               12m
    pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-c7a3e5555f41   50Gi       RWO            Delete           Bound    elastic-system/elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-0   px-csi-db               12m              45m

  2. List the Persistent Volume Claims:

    kubectl -n elastic-system get pvc
    NAME                                         STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
    elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-0   Bound    pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-c7a3e5555f41   50Gi       RWO            px-csi-db      14m
    elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-1   Bound    pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-d1e920903be2   50Gi       RWO            px-csi-db      14m
    elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-2   Bound    pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-7f678ca8ba07   50Gi       RWO            px-csi-db      14m

  3. List the Portworx volumes:

    PX_POD=$(kubectl get pods -l name=portworx -n <px-namespace> -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
    kubectl exec $PX_POD -n <px-namespace> -- /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl volume list
    ID                      NAME                                            SIZE    HA      SHARED  ENCRYPTED       PROXY-VOLUME    IO_PRIORITY     STATUS                          SNAP-ENABLED
    12772348667588675       pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-7f678ca8ba07        50 GiB  3       no      no              no              LOW             up - attached on 10.13.25.240   no
    1013728801369127826     pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-d1e920903be2        50 GiB  3       no      no              no              LOW             up - attached on 10.13.25.29    no
    695731562422595940      pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-c7a3e5555f41        50 GiB  3       no      no              no              LOW             up - attached on 10.13.25.229   no

  4. Inspect one of the Portworx volumes:

    kubectl exec $PX_POD -n <px-namespace> -- /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl volume inspect 12772348667588675
    Defaulted container "portworx" out of: portworx, csi-node-driver-registrar
            Volume                   :  12772348667588675
            Name                     :  pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-7f678ca8ba07
            Size                     :  50 GiB
            Format                   :  ext4
            HA                       :  3
            IO Priority              :  LOW
            Creation time            :  Oct 21 00:34:10 UTC 2022
            Shared                   :  no
            Status                   :  up
            State                    :  Attached: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-be0ef0f68452 (10.13.25.240)
            Last Attached            :  Oct 21 00:34:34 UTC 2022
            Device Path              :  /dev/pxd/pxd12772348667588675
            Labels                   :  namespace=elastic-system,common.k8s.elastic.co/type=elasticsearch,csi.storage.k8s.io/pvc/name=elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-2,csi.storage.k8s.io/pvc/namespace=elastic-system,elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/cluster-name=elasticsearch,io_profile=db_remote,csi.storage.k8s.io/pv/name=pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-7f678ca8ba07,elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/statefulset-name=elasticsearch-es-node,pvc=elasticsearch-data-elasticsearch-es-node-2,repl=3
            ...
            Replica sets on nodes:
                    Set 0
                      Node           : 10.13.25.43 (Pool xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9e181a790081 )
                      Node           : 10.13.25.229 (Pool xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-64664cff557d )
                      Node           : 10.13.25.240 (Pool xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-1cde7b129211 )
            Replication Status       :  Up
            Volume consumers         :
                    - Name           : elasticsearch-es-node-2 (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-fe7d83266b52) (Pod)
                      Namespace      : elastic-system
                      Running on     : portworx-demo-node1
                      Controlled by  : elasticsearch-es-node (StatefulSet

Install Kibana​

To deploy your Kibana instance, perform the following steps.

  1. Specify a Kibana instance and associate it with your Elasticsearch cluster. Copy the following spec and save it as a YAML file:

    apiVersion: kibana.k8s.elastic.co/v1
    kind: Kibana
    metadata:
      name: elasticsearch
      namespace: elastic-system
    spec:
      version: 8.4.3
      count: 1
      elasticsearchRef:
        name: elasticsearch

    Apply the spec with the following command:

    kubectl apply -f <filename.yaml>
    kibana.kibana.k8s.elastic.co/elasticsearch created

  2. Monitor the Kibana health and creation progress. Similar to Elasticsearch, you can retrieve details about Kibana instances:

    kubectl -n elastic-system get kibana
    NAME         HEALTH   NODES   VERSION   AGE
    quickstart   green    1       8.4.3     19h

  3. Watch the associated Kibana pod and wait for READY to show 1/1 and STATUS to show Running:

    watch kubectl -n elastic-system get pod --selector='kibana.k8s.elastic.co/name=elasticsearch'
    NAME                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    elasticsearch-kb-5f9797849f-fwk2z   1/1     Running   0          4m7s

  4. To see a description of the Kibana service that is automatically created for your cluster, run the following command:

    kubectl -n elastic-system describe svc elasticsearch-kb-http
    Name:              elasticsearch-kb-http
    Namespace:         elastic-system
    Labels:            common.k8s.elastic.co/type=kibana
                      kibana.k8s.elastic.co/name=elasticsearch
    Annotations:       <none>
    Selector:          common.k8s.elastic.co/type=kibana,kibana.k8s.elastic.co/name=elasticsearch
    Type:              ClusterIP
    IP Family Policy:  SingleStack
    IP Families:       IPv4
    IP:                10.96.169.11
    IPs:               10.96.169.11
    Port:              https  5601/TCP
    TargetPort:        5601/TCP
    Endpoints:         192.168.229.144:5601
    Session Affinity:  None
    Events:            <none>

  5. Use the following command to access Kibana from your local workstation:

    kubectl -n elastic-system port-forward service/elasticsearch-kb-http 5601

  6. Open https://localhost:5601 in your browser. Your browser will show a warning because the self-signed certificate configured by default is not verified by a known certificate authority and is not trusted by your browser. You can temporarily acknowledge the warning for the purposes of this quickstart, but it is highly recommended that you configure valid certificates for any production deployments.

  7. Log in as the elastic user. Get the password with the following command:

    kubectl -n elastic-system get secret elasticsearch-es-elastic-user -o go-template='{{.data.elastic | base64decode}}';echo

Verify Kibana Installation​

Insert data into Elasticsearch and verify that Kibana is able to search for the data in Elasticsearch. This will help create dashboards and visualizations.

  1. Download a sample file named accounts.json:

    kubectl exec elasticsearch-es-node-0 -n elastic-system -- curl -k -XGET "https://docs.portworx.com/samples/portworx-enterprise/k8s/efk/accounts.json?raw=true" -o accounts.json

  2. Insert the data into Elasticsearch:

    kubectl exec elasticsearch-es-node-0 -n elastic-system -- curl -H "Content-Type:application/json" -XPUT -u "elastic:$ESPASSWORD"  -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/bank/_bulk?pretty&refresh" --data-binary "@accounts.json"

  3. To retrieve high-level information about each index in your Elasticsearch cluster, enter the following command:

    kubectl exec elasticsearch-es-node-0 -n elastic-system -- curl -XGET -u "elastic:$ESPASSWORD"  -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/_cat/indices?v&pretty"
    health status index    uuid                   pri rep docs.count docs.deleted store.size pri.store.size
    green  open   bank     rjUKwlOKRdeSQmH_29bR4Q   1   1       1000            0    754.6kb        383.9kb
    green  open   customer VX3K32-lQxSfOYl_1dyocQ   1   1          0            0       450b           225b

    Once you have run the above command you should see bank and customer indexes in your Elasticsearch cluster. Search for the indexes through your Kibana dashboard.

  4. Log in to the Kibana dashboard using the instructions from the previous section.

  5. Open the left menu and click Discover.

    createIndexPattern

  6. Click Create data view to add an index:

    createIndexPattern

  7. Provide the index pattern bank* and click Save data view to Kibana:

    createIndexPattern2

  8. Select the index bank* from the data view:

    bankIndex

Discussion Forum​

If you have more questions about this application, please head over to our discussion forum and feel free to ask more questions.

Last updated on
Was this page helpful?