# Importing beats dashboards from file system fails

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-beats-dashboards-from-file-system-fails/188348>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** metricbeat\
**Created:** [July 1, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-beats-dashboards-from-file-system-fails/188348 "2019-07-01T14:49:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@tomj](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tomj)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-beats-dashboards-from-file-system-fails/188348/1 "2019-07-01T14:49:23Z")

</div>

Using Metricbeat 6.7.2, Elasticsearch 6.7.0, Kibana 6.7.0

I'd like to be able to "pre-load" selected Beats dashboards into a Kibana/Elasticsearch instance before setting up any client Beats instances or modules. When I create the cluster instance, I also bring in the Metricbeat and Packetbeat JSON files for dashboards, copied from /usr/share/metricbeat/kibana.

When I attempt to use the Kibana UI to load the JSON files from /usr/share/metricbeat/kibana, I receive the error message: "Saved objects file format is invalid and cannot be imported."

Before I dig into the code, could someone enlighten me as to why the dashboard JSON files cannot be imported directly as "saved objects"?

Thanks in advance,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xeraa](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xeraa/32/48181_2.png) [@xeraa](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/xeraa)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-beats-dashboards-from-file-system-fails/188348/2 "2019-07-09T15:39:48Z")

</div>

Rather than deleting the question, please answer with your new approach. Others might have the same question and can learn from it 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@tomj](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tomj)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-beats-dashboards-from-file-system-fails/188348/3 "2019-07-09T15:46:00Z")

</div>

Rather than attempting to import the dashboards from the file system, I fired up a local Elasticsearch/Kibana/Metricbeat/Packetbeat/Logstash combo.

Then I exported the dashboards from that, and imported those dashboards into my existing Kibana instance.

It's a bit circuitous but it worked.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2019, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-beats-dashboards-from-file-system-fails/188348/4 "2019-08-06T15:46:11Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.