# Xpack setting up security

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/xpack-setting-up-security/159796>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-security\
**Created:** [December 6, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/xpack-setting-up-security/159796 "2018-12-06T19:51:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lilyevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@lilyevsky](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lilyevsky)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/xpack-setting-up-security/159796/1 "2018-12-06T19:51:06Z")

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I am just starting with Elasticsearch 6.5.1 (our current version is 5.6).  
Need to use XPack for users, passwords, etc.

Question: Do I necessarily need to setup encryption between nodes? Or I can have authentication for users, encryption for user and Kibana access, but without node-to-node encryption?

I tried to start Elasticsearch without TLS, but then I could not install the XPack license, it gave me an error:

`Cannot install a [PLATINUM] license unless TLS is configured or security is disabled`

But if i disable security, then I cannot use XPack at all.

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**Author:** ![ikakavas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ikakavas/32/34430_2.png) [@ikakavas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ikakavas)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2018, 9:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/xpack-setting-up-security/159796/2 "2018-12-14T09:16:48Z")

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Hi Leonid,

Yes, you _must_ setup TLS for the transport layer (node-to-node encryption) in order to enable security. As mentioned in the [documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.5/configuring-tls.html):

> Clusters that do not have encryption enabled send all data in plain text including passwords and will not be able to install a license that enables X-Pack security.

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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:** [January 11, 2019, 9:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/xpack-setting-up-security/159796/3 "2019-01-11T09:17:01Z")

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