# Is it allowed to connect multiple Kibana but all with exact same versions to the same elastic cluster

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-allowed-to-connect-multiple-kibana-but-all-with-exact-same-versions-to-the-same-elastic-cluster/230235>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Tags:** docker\
**Created:** [April 28, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-allowed-to-connect-multiple-kibana-but-all-with-exact-same-versions-to-the-same-elastic-cluster/230235 "2020-04-28T18:45:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pingz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/pingz/32/58555_2.png) [@pingz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pingz)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-allowed-to-connect-multiple-kibana-but-all-with-exact-same-versions-to-the-same-elastic-cluster/230235/1 "2020-04-28T18:45:59Z")

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I tried to connect a second Kibana to a running elastic search cluster. The elastic cluster originally already has a Kibana connected to it. There were some users created through the first Kibana UI, and those users were assigned custom role. I was able to log in to the first Kibana with those user credentials.

After the second Kibana is connected to the elastic cluster, I was no longer able to log in to both Kibana UIs using those user credential. I saw error

|error|"Internal Server Error"|  
|message|"Multiple versions of Kibana are running against the same Elasticsearch cluster, unable to authorize user."|

Question: If all Kibana are exactly the same version, is it allowed to have two or more Kibana all connect to the same elastic search cluster?

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**Author:** ![Luca\_Belluccini](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/luca_belluccini/32/33239_2.png) [@Luca\_Belluccini](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Luca_Belluccini)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-allowed-to-connect-multiple-kibana-but-all-with-exact-same-versions-to-the-same-elastic-cluster/230235/2 "2020-04-29T00:52:49Z")

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We have a dedicated section in the [Kibana documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/production.html#load-balancing-kibana).

It can be done to provide "High Availability"  
In general, you need:

- Same Kibana version
- Same Kibana settings in `kibana.yml` except eventually the ones to connect to Elasticsearch or the `server.name`
- Same value for `xpack.security.encryptionKey` across all instances (used to encrypt cookies)
- Same value for `xpack.reporting.encryptionKey` across all instances (used to encrypt reports)

If you want instead to create "multiple tenants", then there are other settings to configure in order to make the 2 Kibana instances totally independent.  
To implement this without using multiple Kibana instances, you can use [Kibana Spaces](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/7.6/xpack-spaces.html).

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-allowed-to-connect-multiple-kibana-but-all-with-exact-same-versions-to-the-same-elastic-cluster/230235/3 "2020-05-27T00:52:54Z")

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