# Setting up a Separate Monitoring Cluster (kibana,xpack,es, 2 clusters)\[SOLVED\]

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/setting-up-a-separate-monitoring-cluster-kibana-xpack-es-2-clusters-solved/108746>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [November 22, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/setting-up-a-separate-monitoring-cluster-kibana-xpack-es-2-clusters-solved/108746 "2017-11-22T15:53:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Oleg.Borisov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@Oleg.Borisov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Oleg.Borisov)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/setting-up-a-separate-monitoring-cluster-kibana-xpack-es-2-clusters-solved/108746/1 "2017-11-22T15:53:00Z")

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Hi folks.  
I install 2 clusters

first is 2 hosts cluster named kibana for storing and analize monitoring data from prod cluster:  
settings a typical:  
elasticsearch.yml:

[cluster.name](http://cluster.name) : "kibana"  
[node.name](http://node.name) : "kibana-0x-0.12x"  
http.port: 9200  
transport.tcp.port: 9300  
http.enabled: true  
discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts: ["192.168.0.121", "192.168.0.122"]  
node.master: true  
node.data: true  
xpack.security.enabled: false

kibana.yml

port: 5601  
server.host: "192.168.0.12x"  
xpack.security.enabled: false

Now , as I say, I want to use this cluster to monitor production cluster. So I install another 11 VMs, install ES, install XPack and add next to es.yml 🙂

xpack.monitoring.exporters.id1:  
type: http  
host: ["192.168.0.121:9200","192.168.0.122:9200"]  
xpack.security.enabled: false  
xpack.monitoring.enabled: true

And, as I expect, my prod cluster appears in Kibana.  
But. In monitoring section I have 2 clusters: kibana and my prod cluster, but I cant look to prod cluster because license.  
So I have a question - how to disable local cluster monitoring and use it just like a storage for date.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pickypg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/pickypg/32/62409_2.png) [@pickypg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pickypg)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/setting-up-a-separate-monitoring-cluster-kibana-xpack-es-2-clusters-solved/108746/2 "2017-11-22T22:47:09Z")

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Hi @Oleg.Borisov,

With the basic license, you are limited to monitoring a single cluster (as you noticed). The way to fix this is to simply stop monitoring either of the clusters.

In order to do that, simply disable `xpack.monitoring.enabled` on the cluster that you do not want to monitor (the "monitoring" cluster, aka the one without `xpack.monitoring.exporters` defined):

```auto
# elasticsearch.yml - Cluster to ignore
xpack.monitoring.enabled: false

```

This way, that cluster will simply not report its statistics. You _cannot_ disable Monitoring (or the other plugins) dynamically, so this will require the monitoring cluster to be restarted. However, a better way to support this approach is to disable the _collection_ of monitoring data, which you can do dynamically _on the monitoring cluster_:

```auto
PUT /_cluster/settings
{
  "persistent": {
    "xpack.monitoring.collection.interval": -1
  }
}

```

This will stop collection of monitoring data locally, but it will allow monitoring's "cleaner service" to automatically curate the `.monitoring-*` indices. If you prefer to completely disable `xpack.monitoring.enabled`, then you will need to curate (read: delete) your old data manually.

Either way, you will then want to delete your existing monitoring indices to get the UI to start working again (you could let the old data age out, but this will work more quickly):

```auto
DELETE /.monitoring-*

```

Hope that helps,  
Chris

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Oleg.Borisov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@Oleg.Borisov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Oleg.Borisov)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2017, 9:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/setting-up-a-separate-monitoring-cluster-kibana-xpack-es-2-clusters-solved/108746/3 "2017-11-23T09:08:03Z")

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Thx.  
I try this:  
xpack.monitoring.enabled: false  
and it helps

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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:** [December 21, 2017, 9:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/setting-up-a-separate-monitoring-cluster-kibana-xpack-es-2-clusters-solved/108746/4 "2017-12-21T09:08:30Z")

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