# Start up Error on Kibana 6.x with Elastic x-Pack - Plugin is RED

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [October 13, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947 "2017-10-13T19:16:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ricigliano](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ricigliano/32/23041_2.png) [@Ricigliano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ricigliano)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/1 "2017-10-13T19:16:17Z")

</div>

I get this error when starting up Kibana 6.x with Elasticsearch 6.x + X-PACK.  
I modified the kibana config file with suggestions from an older post but maybe some things have changed.

This was the old post I used:

> [@How to fix ui settings status to green and plugin:elasticsearch@5.0.1\] Status changed from yellow to red - Authentication Exception](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-fix-ui-settings-status-to-green-and-plugin-elasticsearch-5-0-1-status-changed-from-yellow-to-red-authentication-exception/69110):
>
> We are getting following error in kibana log file, how to fix those errors. log [04:28:49.556] [error][status][plugin:xpack\_main@5.0.1] Status changed from yellow to red - Authentication Exception log [04:28:49.558] [error][status][plugin:elasticsearch@5.0.1] Status changed from yellow to red - Authentication Exception [04:28:49.804] [error][status][ui settings] Status changed from uninitialized to red - Elasticsearch plugin is red Our kibana.yaml file is as follows: Kibana is served by…

Here is the errors on start up:

mricigli-mac:config ricig$ ../bin/kibana  
log [19:12:40.973] [info][status][plugin:kibana@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to green - Ready  
log [19:12:41.031] [info][status][plugin:elasticsearch@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to yellow - Waiting for Elasticsearch  
log [19:12:41.055] [info][status][plugin:xpack\_main@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to yellow - Waiting for Elasticsearch  
log [19:12:41.078] [info][status][plugin:searchprofiler@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to yellow - Waiting for Elasticsearch  
log [19:12:41.083] [info][status][plugin:ml@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to yellow - Waiting for Elasticsearch  
log [19:12:41.139] [error][status][plugin:xpack\_main@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from yellow to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.140] [error][status][plugin:searchprofiler@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from yellow to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.142] [error][status][plugin:ml@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from yellow to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.142] [error][status][plugin:elasticsearch@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from yellow to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.164] [error][status][plugin:tilemap@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.167] [error][status][plugin:watcher@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.190] [info][status][plugin:grokdebugger@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to green - Ready  
log [19:12:41.194] [info][status][plugin:dashboard\_mode@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to green - Ready  
log [19:12:41.202] [error][status][plugin:logstash@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.213] [error][status][plugin:upgrade@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to red - Authentication Exception  
log [19:12:41.252] [info][status][plugin:console@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to green - Ready  
log [19:12:41.268] [info][status][plugin:metrics@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to green - Ready  
log [19:12:41.502] [info][status][plugin:timelion@6.0.0-rc1] Status changed from uninitialized to green - Ready  
log [19:12:41.506] [info][listening] Server running at [http://127.0.0.1:5601](http://127.0.0.1:5601)  
log [19:12:41.508] [error][status][ui settings] Status changed from uninitialized to red - Elasticsearch plugin is red

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bargs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bargs/32/5429_2.png) [@Bargs](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bargs)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/2 "2017-10-13T20:23:36Z")

</div>

Looks like Kibana cannot authenticate with Elasticsearch. Have you set the password for all the [built in users](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/x-pack/6.0/setting-up-authentication.html#set-built-in-user-passwords) and updated the username and password in kibana.yml?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ricigliano](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ricigliano/32/23041_2.png) [@Ricigliano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ricigliano)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/3 "2017-10-13T21:45:03Z")

</div>

Yes I think, but must be doing something wrong. Here is the config file kibana I am using:

# Kibana is served by a back end server. This setting specifies the port to use.

server.port: 5601

# Specifies the address to which the Kibana server will bind. IP addresses and host names are both valid values.

# The default is 'localhost', which usually means remote machines will not be able to connect.

# To allow connections from remote users, set this parameter to a non-loopback address.

#server.host: "localhost"  
server.host: "127.0.0.1"

# Enables you to specify a path to mount Kibana at if you are running behind a proxy. This only affects

# the URLs generated by Kibana, your proxy is expected to remove the basePath value before forwarding requests

# to Kibana. This setting cannot end in a slash.

server.basePath: ""

# The maximum payload size in bytes for incoming server requests.

server.maxPayloadBytes: 1048576

# The Kibana server's name. This is used for display purposes.

[server.name](http://server.name): "Ricigliana"

# The URL of the Elasticsearch instance to use for all your queries.

elasticsearch.url: "[http://127.0.0.1:9200](http://127.0.0.1:9200)"

# When this setting's value is true Kibana uses the hostname specified in the server.host

# setting. When the value of this setting is false, Kibana uses the hostname of the host

# that connects to this Kibana instance.

elasticsearch.preserveHost: true

# Kibana uses an index in Elasticsearch to store saved searches, visualizations and

# dashboards. Kibana creates a new index if the index doesn't already exist.

kibana.index: ".kibana"

# The default application to load.

kibana.defaultAppId: "discover"

# If your Elasticsearch is protected with basic authentication, these settings provide

# the username and password that the Kibana server uses to perform maintenance on the Kibana

# index at startup. Your Kibana users still need to authenticate with Elasticsearch, which

# is proxied through the Kibana server.

elasticsearch.username: "kibana"  
elasticsearch.password: "kibanaadmin"

# Enables SSL and paths to the PEM-format SSL certificate and SSL key files, respectively.

# These settings enable SSL for outgoing requests from the Kibana server to the browser.

#server.ssl.enabled: false  
#server.ssl.certificate: /path/to/your/server.crt  
#server.ssl.key: /path/to/your/server.key

# Optional settings that provide the paths to the PEM-format SSL certificate and key files.

# These files validate that your Elasticsearch backend uses the same key files.

#elasticsearch.ssl.certificate: /path/to/your/client.crt  
#elasticsearch.ssl.key: /path/to/your/client.key

# Optional setting that enables you to specify a path to the PEM file for the certificate

# authority for your Elasticsearch instance.

#elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities: ["/path/to/your/CA.pem"]

# To disregard the validity of SSL certificates, change this setting's value to 'none'.

#elasticsearch.ssl.verificationMode: full

# Time in milliseconds to wait for Elasticsearch to respond to pings. Defaults to the value of

# the elasticsearch.requestTimeout setting.

#elasticsearch.pingTimeout: 1500

# Time in milliseconds to wait for responses from the back end or Elasticsearch. This value

# must be a positive integer.

elasticsearch.requestTimeout: 30000

# List of Kibana client-side headers to send to Elasticsearch. To send _no_ client-side

# headers, set this value to [] (an empty list).

#elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist: [authorization]

# Header names and values that are sent to Elasticsearch. Any custom headers cannot be overwritten

# by client-side headers, regardless of the elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist configuration.

#elasticsearch.customHeaders: {}

# Time in milliseconds for Elasticsearch to wait for responses from shards. Set to 0 to disable.

#elasticsearch.shardTimeout: 0

# Time in milliseconds to wait for Elasticsearch at Kibana startup before retrying.

#elasticsearch.startupTimeout: 5000

# Specifies the path where Kibana creates the process ID file.

#pid.file: /var/run/kibana.pid

# Enables you specify a file where Kibana stores log output.

logging.dest: stdout

# Set the value of this setting to true to suppress all logging output.

#logging.silent: false

# Set the value of this setting to true to suppress all logging output other than error messages.

#logging.quiet: false

# Set the value of this setting to true to log all events, including system usage information

# and all requests.

logging.verbose: false

# Set the interval in milliseconds to sample system and process performance

# metrics. Minimum is 100ms. Defaults to 5000.

#ops.interval: 5000

# The default locale. This locale can be used in certain circumstances to substitute any missing

# translations.

#i18n.defaultLocale: "en"  
#xpack.security.skipSslCheck: true  
#xpack.security.useUnsafeSessions: true  
#xpack.security.encryptionKey: "Something\_at\_least\_32\_characters"  
xpack.security.enabled: false  
xpack.monitoring.enabled: false  
xpack.graph.enabled: false  
xpack.reporting.enabled: false

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bargs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bargs/32/5429_2.png) [@Bargs](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bargs)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/4 "2017-10-13T21:50:44Z")

</div>

To narrow down the problem, try submitting a query directly to ES as the `kibana` user to ensure the password is set up correctly.

I also noticed you have the security plugin disabled in kibana. If memory serves me correctly this _should_ still work, but what happens if you enable it?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ricigliano](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ricigliano/32/23041_2.png) [@Ricigliano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ricigliano)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/5 "2017-10-13T23:09:26Z")

</div>

hi, sorry I am very new to ES, how do I submit a query to ES directly ?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ricigliano](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ricigliano/32/23041_2.png) [@Ricigliano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ricigliano)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/6 "2017-10-13T23:19:54Z")

</div>

Also what parameter in the kabani.yml config file! is the security plug in?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bargs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bargs/32/5429_2.png) [@Bargs](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bargs)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 8:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/7 "2017-10-16T08:25:41Z")

</div>

Try submitting a [match\_all query](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-match-all-query.html) against the .kibana index for example. Submit the query as the kibana user. How you do this will depend on what authentication mechanism you have set up, most likely just basic auth.

`xpack.security.enabled: false` is the setting in kibana.yml I'm referring to.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ricigliano](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ricigliano/32/23041_2.png) [@Ricigliano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ricigliano)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/8 "2017-10-17T00:33:21Z")

</div>

Hi I tried  
xpack.security.enabled: true

No effect, same results.

I tried the query and here is the result:  
mricigli-mac:bin ricig$ curl -u, --user kibana:kibanaadmin -XGET 'localhost:9200/\_search?pretty' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'

> {  
> "query": {  
> "match\_all": {}  
> }  
> }  
> '  
> [2017-10-16T19:41:32,432][INFO][o.e.x.s.a.AuthenticationService] [4mjFsbb] Authentication of [kibana] was terminated by realm [reserved] - failed to authenticate user [kibana]  
> {  
> "error" : {  
> "root\_cause" : [  
> {  
> "type" : "security\_exception",  
> "reason" : "failed to authenticate user [kibana]",  
> "header" : {  
> "WWW-Authenticate" : "Basic realm="security" charset="UTF-8""  
> }  
> }  
> ],  
> "type" : "security\_exception",  
> "reason" : "failed to authenticate user [kibana]",  
> "header" : {  
> "WWW-Authenticate" : "Basic realm="security" charset="UTF-8""  
> }  
> },  
> "status" : 401  
> }

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bargs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bargs/32/5429_2.png) [@Bargs](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bargs)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 10:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/9 "2017-10-18T10:08:42Z")

</div>

Looks like the password for the kibana user isn't set up correctly. Try [setting the password](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/x-pack/6.0/setting-up-authentication.html) for the built in kibana user again and re-try that query afterward.

---

<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:** [November 15, 2017, 10:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/start-up-error-on-kibana-6-x-with-elastic-x-pack-plugin-is-red/103947/10 "2017-11-15T10:08:43Z")

</div>

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