Remote cluster license with ECK operator

[gidonshn]

Hi all.

I have an ECK operator and that manages two ES clusters in the same k8s namespace.
I'm trying to configure one of them as a remote cluster in the other.
looking at this doc:
https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-on-k8s/master/k8s-remote-clusters.html

I'm trying to understand the note:

"The remote clusters feature requires a valid Enterprise license or Enterprise trial license."

Do i require an enterprise license just if i want to use the "remoteClusters" field in the elasticsearch CR, like this:

apiVersion: elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/v1
kind: Elasticsearch
metadata:
  name: cluster-one
  namespace: ns-one
spec:
  nodeSets:
  - count: 3
    name: default
  remoteClusters:
  - name: cluster-two
    elasticsearchRef:
      name: cluster-two
      namespace: ns-two 
  version: 8.7.0

or do I need the enterprise license even if i do not use the built-in "remoteClusters" field, and just configure the remote cluster as if it was external, like here:
https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-on-k8s/master/k8s-remote-clusters.html#k8s-remote-clusters-connect-external

thanks.

[leandrojmp (Leandro Pereira)]

Elastic documentation is normally pretty good, but sometimes it can also be really confusing.

Remote clusters can be used for two things:

• Cross- Cluster Replication
• Cross-Cluster Search

Cross-cluster replication is a paid feature, you need a license, but cross-cluster search does not need a license and works with the basic license.

I do not use Kubernetes or the ECK, but from what I understood, this would just configure the remote clusters, so I see no reason for it to require a license because you may configure the remote clusters just to use cross-cluster search, which works under the basic license.

Are you able to use this with the basic license or you got some error?

The documentation is not clear and only someome from Elastic can give more insight about it.

[stephenb (Stephen Brown)]

ECK is even a bit more complicated... It ECK Self Managed

For ECK CCS / CCR are both Enterprise Licenses...
The intention here is that ECK with CCS / CCR are geared towards "Entperise" deployments/organizations.

Subscriptions | Elastic Stack Products & Support | Elastic