Create new user

Hello,

I have installed ELK stack with x-pack.
Now I logged in with Kibana user and trying to create new user but it is throwing error:
You do not have permission to manage users.
Please contact your administrator.

Anyone pls help me how to create new user using Kibana interface.

1 Like

Hello,

You need to login with Elastic user/password to be able to create new users. Kibana user is just used for connecting and communicating with ES.

kibana
The user Kibana uses to connect and communicate with Elasticsearch.

Here are our docs: Setting Up User Authentication | X-Pack for the Elastic Stack [6.2] | Elastic

Thanks,
Bhavya

1 Like

Hi,

I tried login with elastic user in kibana but not able to log in. The password generated using x-pack utility for elastic user.
Pls help.

Regards,
Parag

Hi,

3 things:

  1. Can you try to login to elastic cluster with your password which you generated?
  2. Can you please add your elastic user/password into Kibana.yml? and then try to login to Kibana using your elastic user?
  3. If all that fails can you please try to create your password for elastic/Kibana/logstash using step 7 here?

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.2/installing-xpack-es.html

Thanks,
Bhavya

1 Like

Hi Thank you for your prompt response.
Below points you suggested :

  1. Can you try to login to elastic cluster with your password which you generated?
    []: Yes I generated password after installing xpack and used elastic password to launch and access elastic url
  2. Can you please add your elastic user/password into Kibana.yml? and then try to login to Kibana using your elastic user?
    []: Yes added the elastic password in Kibana.yml so after that only i was able to access Kibana UI. I access kibana UI with Kibana user and password that was generated earlier. So till this point i don't have any issue.

so after step 2 i.e. launching kibana with kibana user when im trying to access user management then it is throwing error that cannot access it because of insufficient privileges.
so read article saying that i need to access kibana with elastic super user which has privilege to create new user with role but that's is where my concern that which elastic super user? Is it the same which has been used to access elastic ? if so then i tried with that user as well but not able to launch kibana.

Pls suggest

Thanks,
Parag

You should not do this. It's a common mistake that new users make, but this is not the correct user for logging into Kibana.

The kibana user is designed as a user that the Kibana application can use for its own purposes when it connects to Elasticsearch. Typically this is the user that you enter into your kibana.yml file.
For example, it is how Kibana can tell whether your ES server is available, and whether it has security turned on. You should not log in to Kibana as that user, because it doesn't have permission to do very much (which is intentional - it has just enough access to run Kibana but no more)

You should initially login to Kibana using the elastic user. This is a superuser that can do everything.
You can use that user for everything you want to do, and always login to Kibana as elastic, but we don't recommend it. Because that user can do everything, it can make a horrible mess of your cluster if you're not careful, and one of the benefits of X-Pack security is that it can protect you from mistakes like that.

Rather, we recommend that you use the elastic user to login the first time, and then use the Kibana admin screens to create new, lower privileged users and roles that have just the permissions that you need, but nothing more. You can then safely use those users to do your work in Kibana, and you can always login as elastic if you need to make major changes.

4 Likes

Thank you very much for your response.
As you mentioned I tried login with elastic user but not able login with that user somehow.
Could you pls help me to troubleshoot the issue.

Thanks
Parag

It is working now...
Thank you all for your support.

elastic is an administrator account, thank.

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I'm not sure if you have a question, or need assistance with something, but if so, please start a new thread to discuss your issue.
Thanks.