# Why does Beat need to connect to Kibana?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [November 14, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417 "2020-11-14T21:42:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![houmie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/houmie/32/78999_2.png) [@houmie](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/houmie)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417/1 "2020-11-14T21:42:39Z")

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In filebeat.yml there is this line

> Starting with Beats version 6.0.0, the dashboards are loaded via the Kibana API.

But filebeat either connects to logstash or directly to Elasticsearch. Elastic search then in return will connect to Kibana. Why does Filebeat need to connect to Kibana?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![wangqinghuan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d26b3c/32.png) [@wangqinghuan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/wangqinghuan)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417/2 "2020-11-15T04:43:31Z")

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If you want visualize Filebeat data in Kibana, you need to create Visualization, DashBoards and Searches. Filebeat comes packaged with example Kibana dashboards, visualizations, and searches to help you visualize data in Kibana.

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**Author:** ![houmie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/houmie/32/78999_2.png) [@houmie](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/houmie)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 8:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417/3 "2020-11-15T08:44:56Z")

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Thanks for clarification.

But how comes the config doesn't have a username/password in the Kibana section? Because the filebeats will be on separate servers and have to connect remotely to the central Kibana.

```auto
# =================================== Kibana ===================================

# Starting with Beats version 6.0.0, the dashboards are loaded via the Kibana API.
# This requires a Kibana endpoint configuration.
#setup.kibana:

  # Kibana Host
  # Scheme and port can be left out and will be set to the default (http and 5601)
  # In case you specify and additional path, the scheme is required: http://localhost:5601/path
  # IPv6 addresses should always be defined as: https://[2001:db8::1]:5601
  # host: "localhost:5601"

  # Kibana Space ID
  # ID of the Kibana Space into which the dashboards should be loaded. By default,
  # the Default Space will be used.
  #space.id:

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417/5 "2020-11-15T22:00:26Z")

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> [@houmie](#):
>
> But how comes the config doesn't have a username/password in the Kibana section? Because the filebeats will be on separate servers and have to connect remotely to the central Kibana.

Kibana's authentication uses whatever is setup in Elasticsearch. So if you have defined username+password for Elasticsearch, then it can reuse that.

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**Author:** ![rugenl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rugenl/32/12887_2.png) [@rugenl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rugenl)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417/7 "2020-11-22T01:11:54Z")

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ALL beats don't, just one of each type, of each version you intend to use and before any others attempt to send logs. The beats setup required auth I don't intend to give to "just logging" clients.

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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:** [December 20, 2020, 3:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-does-beat-need-to-connect-to-kibana/255417/8 "2020-12-20T03:11:55Z")

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