# Kibana cannot connect to ES cluster - Unable to retrieve version information from Elasticsearch nodes

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Tags:** docker\
**Created:** [July 8, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185 "2021-07-08T12:16:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dorinand](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dorinand/32/70521_2.png) [@dorinand](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dorinand)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185/1 "2021-07-08T12:16:23Z")

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Kibana and ES version: 7.13.2

I am running cluster of 5 nodes (3 ES data & master nodes and 2 coordinating nodes) and one Kibana. Whole cluster is running in docker swarm on the same network. My ES cluster works fine, I can connect to it with Cerebro or Kibana from localhost. When I tried connect to ES from Kibana which is deployed to swarm, it ends up with:

```auto
2021-07-08T10:39:16.963979391Z {"type":"log","@timestamp":"2021-07-08T11:39:16+01:00","tags":["info","savedobjects-service"],"pid":953,"message":"Waiting until all Elasticsearch nodes are compatible with Kibana before starting saved objects migrations..."}
2021-07-08T10:39:17.031184806Z {"type":"log","@timestamp":"2021-07-08T11:39:17+01:00","tags":["error","savedobjects-service"],"pid":953,"message":"Unable to retrieve version information from Elasticsearch nodes."}

```

I set **ELASTICSEARCH\_URL** variable in Kibana and I am able to reach ES cluster from Kibana container with curl as:

- coordinating nodes service name - OK
- container IP - OK
- network alias - OK
- container name - OK

When I reach Kibana from browser, I can see:

```auto
Kibana server is not ready yet

```

I can see no kibana indices in ES.

When I run Kibana with command as `docker run ...` I am able to connect to ES cluster.

Questions:

1. Why I cannot connect to ES with Kibana from swarm but from localhost I can?
2. What is savedobjects-service? I have experience with older versions of ELK stack and do not remember logs like this.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dorinand](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dorinand/32/70521_2.png) [@dorinand](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dorinand)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 2:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185/2 "2021-07-12T14:23:04Z")

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It was my mistake. I set **ELASTICSEARCH\_URL** but Elasticsearch use variable **ELASTICSEARCH\_HOSTS**. I would expect that Kibana will log something more than just `Unable to retrieve version information from Elasticsearch nodes.`.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexandrpaliy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@alexandrpaliy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alexandrpaliy)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185/3 "2021-07-12T14:32:15Z")

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Funny thing, I faced the same problem an hour ago and found this topic, and now, when I figured this issue out, I also noticed you did it too 🙂

In my case, though, issue was caused by wrong kibana user.  
I'm new to ELK, and I was trying to use user from "kibana\_admin" group in order to let kibana connect to elasticsearch (the correct way is to use "kibana\_system" user).

> [@dorinand](#):
>
> I would expect that Kibana will log something more than just `Unable to retrieve version information from Elasticsearch nodes.` .

I can't agree more.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![huang\_jzx](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/huang_jzx/32/91649_2.png) [@huang\_jzx](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/huang_jzx)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 3:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185/4 "2021-07-15T03:45:45Z")

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can you help me? i have same question  
this is my ' kinana.yml':

```auto
server.name: kibana
server.port: 5601
server.host: "0.0.0.0"
elasticsearch.hosts: ["http://localhost:9200"]

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dorinand](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dorinand/32/70521_2.png) [@dorinand](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dorinand)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 5:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185/5 "2021-07-15T05:50:36Z")

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Hi, if you have the same issue, check if you have elasticsearch on your localhost. Did you check it?

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<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 12, 2021, 5:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-cannot-connect-to-es-cluster-unable-to-retrieve-version-information-from-elasticsearch-nodes/278185/6 "2021-08-12T05:51:08Z")

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