SSL Guide: 2-Node Elasticsearch & Kibana

steps

First Install elasticsearch in our server.

  wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-8.19.9-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Unzip we installed elasticsearch package.

 tar -xzvf elasticsearch-8.19.9-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Edit elasticsearch.yml fille.
```
 mkdir elklog elkdata
```

    cd elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/
    vim elasticsearch.yml

    # ======================== Elasticsearch Configuration =========================
    #
    # NOTE: Elasticsearch comes with reasonable defaults for most settings.
    #       Before you set out to tweak and tune the configuration, make sure you
    #       understand what are you trying to accomplish and the consequences.
    #
    # The primary way of configuring a node is via this file. This template lists
    # the most important settings you may want to configure for a production cluster.
    #
    # Please consult the documentation for further information on configuration options:
    # https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/index.html
    #
    # ---------------------------------- Cluster -----------------------------------
    #
    # Use a descriptive name for your cluster:
    #
    cluster.name: my-application
    #
    # ------------------------------------ Node ------------------------------------
    #
    # Use a descriptive name for the node:
    #
    node.name: node-1
    #
    # Add custom attributes to the node:
    #
    #node.attr.rack: r1
    #
    # ----------------------------------- Paths ------------------------------------
    #
    # Path to directory where to store the data (separate multiple locations by comma):
    #
    path.data: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/elkdata
    #
    # Path to log files:
    #
    path.logs: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/elklog
    #
    # ----------------------------------- Memory -----------------------------------
    #
    # Lock the memory on startup:
    #
    #bootstrap.memory_lock: true
    #
    # Make sure that the heap size is set to about half the memory available
    # on the system and that the owner of the process is allowed to use this
    # limit.
    #
    # Elasticsearch performs poorly when the system is swapping the memory.
    #
    # ---------------------------------- Network -----------------------------------
    #
    # By default Elasticsearch is only accessible on localhost. Set a different
    # address here to expose this node on the network:
    #
    network.host: 172.31.3.90
    #
    # By default Elasticsearch listens for HTTP traffic on the first free port it
    # finds starting at 9200. Set a specific HTTP port here:
    #
    http.port: 9200
    #
    # For more information, consult the network module documentation.
    #
    # --------------------------------- Discovery ----------------------------------
    #
    # Pass an initial list of hosts to perform discovery when this node is started:
    # The default list of hosts is ["127.0.0.1", "[::1]"]
    #
    #discovery.seed_hosts: ["host1", "host2"]
    #
    # Bootstrap the cluster using an initial set of master-eligible nodes:
    #
    #cluster.initial_master_nodes: ["node-1", "node-2"]
    #
    # For more information, consult the discovery and cluster formation module documentation.
    #
    # ---------------------------------- Various -----------------------------------
    #
    # Allow wildcard deletion of indices:
    #
    #action.destructive_requires_name: false

    #----------------------- BEGIN SECURITY AUTO CONFIGURATION -----------------------
    #
    # The following settings, TLS certificates, and keys have been automatically
    # generated to configure Elasticsearch security features on 07-01-2026 06:32:46
    #
    # --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    # Enable security features
    xpack.security.enabled: true

    xpack.security.enrollment.enabled: true

    # Enable encryption for HTTP API client connections, such as Kibana, Logstash, and Agents
    xpack.security.http.ssl:
      enabled: true
      keystore.path: certs/http.p12

    # Enable encryption and mutual authentication between cluster nodes
    xpack.security.transport.ssl:
      enabled: true
      verification_mode: certificate
      keystore.path: certs/transport.p12
      truststore.path: certs/transport.p12
    # Create a new cluster with the current node only
    # Additional nodes can still join the cluster later
    cluster.initial_master_nodes: ["node-1"]

    #----------------------- END SECURITY AUTO CONFIGURATION -------------------------

Then run elasticsearch.

./bin/elasticsearch

Now create certificate.

./bin/elasticsearch-certutil ca --pem --out rootcertificate.zip

unzip this created file.

unzip rootcertificate.zip

now using we created certificate you need assign a certificate to each and every node, now create instance.yml file

vim instance.yml

instances:
  - name: node-1
    ip: ["172.31.3.90"]
    dns: ["ip-172-31-3-90.us-east-2.compute.internal"]

Generated Elasticsearch node SSL/TLS certificates using elasticsearch-certutil by signing node identities with a custom Certificate Authority (CA) in PEM format for secure cluster communication

./bin/elasticsearch-certutil cert --ca-cert /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/ca.crt --ca-key /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/ca.key --pem --in /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/instance.yml --out /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/node1.zip

unzip this generated file.

unzip node1.zip

Copied and configured CA and node certificates in the Elasticsearch config/certs directory to enable secure communication.

ls /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/
cp node-1.crt /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/node1.crt
cp node-1.crt /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/node1.key

Now add this particular certificate in elasticsearch.yml

Enable X-Pack security and configure HTTP + transport SSL using CA, node certificate, and key in elasticsearch.yml to secure client and inter-node communication.

#----------------------- BEGIN SECURITY AUTO CONFIGURATION -----------------------
#
# The following settings, TLS certificates, and keys have been automatically
# generated to configure Elasticsearch security features on 07-01-2026 06:32:46
#
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Enable security features
xpack.security.enabled: true

xpack.security.enrollment.enabled: true

xpack.securtiy.http.ssl:
  enabled: true
  certificate_authorities: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/ca.crt
  certificate: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/node1.crt
  key: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/node1.key

# Enable encryption and mutual authentication between cluster nodee
xpack.security.transport.ssl:
  enabled: true
  verification_mode: certificate
  certificate_authorities: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/ca.crt
  certificate: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/node1.crt
  key: /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/config/certs/node1.key

# Create a new cluster with the current node only
# Additional nodes can still join the cluster later
cluster.initial_master_nodes: ["node-1"]

then restart the elasticsearch.

./bin/elasticsearch

Now we can secure one more node.

create node-2
install elasticsearch package.

wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-8.19.9-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Unzip we installed elasticsearch package.

tar -xzvf elasticsearch-8.19.9-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Create certificate for node-2, Create instance2.yml file. (do this activity in node-1)

 vim instance2.yml

 instances:
   - name: node-2
     ip: ["172.31.0.173"]
     dns: ["ip-172-31-0-173.us-east-2.compute.internal"]

Generated Elasticsearch node SSL/TLS certificates using elasticsearch-certutil by signing node identities with a custom Certificate Authority (CA) in PEM format for secure cluster communication. (do this activity in node-1)

./bin/elasticsearch-certutil cert --ca-cert /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/ca.crt --ca-key /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/ca.key --pem --in /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/instance2.yml --out /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/node2.zip

Now in Node one we have copy certificate(node-1.crt) and Paste in node-2(node-2.crt) by using cat node-2.crt Command.

Again Do it same in Node one we have copy certificate (node-1.key) and Paste in node-2 (node-2.key) by using cat Command.

You can see in this screenshot pasted certificate in other server.

cat node-2.crt
cat node-2.key

Now You have copy certificate from node1 by file(ca.crt) and paste in node2 by file(ca.crt).

cat ca.crt

Paste it in node2 ca.crt and save(:wq).

cat ca.crt

Now edit elasticsearch.yml.

mkdir elkdata 
cd elkdata    
mkdir log

vim elasticsearch.yml

Edit elasticsearch.yml file (in node-1).

Now restart the node-1 and start node-2.

./bin/elasticsearch

FACED ERROR ( reason i selected low server )

sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144

restart node-2

./bin/elasticsearch

Let’s secure kibana server.

Create Kibana Server.

Install Kibana Package.

wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/kibana/kibana-8.19.9-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Unzip we installed elasticsearch package.

tar -xzvf kibana-8.19.9-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

4. Create certificate for Kibana Server, Create kibana.yml file. (do this activity in node-1)

vim kibana.yml

instances:
  - name: kibana
    ip: ["172.31.7.188"]
    dns: ["ip-172-31-7-188.us-east-2.compute.internal"]

Generated Kibana Server SSL/TLS certificates using elasticsearch-certutil by signing node identities with a custom Certificate Authority (CA) in PEM format for secure cluster communication. (do this activity in node-1).

./bin/elasticsearch-certutil cert --ca-cert /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/ca.crt --ca-key /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/ca.key --pem --in /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/kibana.yml --out /home/ec2-user/elasticsearch-8.19.9/ca/kibana.zip

Now in Node one we have copy certificate(kibana.crt) and Paste in kibana server(kibana.crt) by using cat kibana.crt Command.

Copy This created certificate and pase on kibana server.

edit kibana.yml file

Add here ca.crt file path.

add ssl certificate path.

# For more configuration options see the configuration guide for Kibana in
# https://www.elastic.co/guide/index.html

# =================== System: Kibana Server ===================
# 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: "172.31.7.188"

# Enables you to specify a path to mount Kibana at if you are running behind a proxy.
# Use the `server.rewriteBasePath` setting to tell Kibana if it should remove the basePath
# from requests it receives, and to prevent a deprecation warning at startup.
# This setting cannot end in a slash.
#server.basePath: ""

# Specifies whether Kibana should rewrite requests that are prefixed with
# `server.basePath` or require that they are rewritten by your reverse proxy.
# Defaults to `false`.
#server.rewriteBasePath: false

# Specifies the public URL at which Kibana is available for end users. If
# `server.basePath` is configured this URL should end with the same basePath.
#server.publicBaseUrl: ""

# The maximum payload size in bytes for incoming server requests.
#server.maxPayload: 1048576

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

# =================== System: Kibana Server (Optional) ===================
# 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

# =================== System: Elasticsearch ===================
# The URLs of the Elasticsearch instances to use for all your queries.
elasticsearch.hosts: ["https://172.31.3.90:9200","https://172.31.0.173:9200"]

# 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_system"
elasticsearch.password: "*****************"

# Kibana can also authenticate to Elasticsearch via "service account tokens".
# Service account tokens are Bearer style tokens that replace the traditional username/password based configuration.
# Use this token instead of a username/password.
# elasticsearch.serviceAccountToken: "my_token"

# 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

# The maximum number of sockets that can be used for communications with elasticsearch.
# Defaults to `800`.
#elasticsearch.maxSockets: 1024

# Specifies whether Kibana should use compression for communications with elasticsearch
# Defaults to `false`.
#elasticsearch.compression: false

# 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: 30000

# =================== System: Elasticsearch (Optional) ===================
# These files are used to verify the identity of Kibana to Elasticsearch and are required when
# xpack.security.http.ssl.client_authentication in Elasticsearch is set to required.
#elasticsearch.ssl.certificate: /path/to/your/client.crt
#elasticsearch.ssl.key: /path/to/your/client.key

# Enables you to specify a path to the PEM file for the certificate
# authority for your Elasticsearch instance.
elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities: [ "/home/ec2-user/kibana-8.19.9/config/certs/ca.crt" ]

# To disregard the validity of SSL certificates, change this setting's value to 'none'.
#elasticsearch.ssl.verificationMode: full

# =================== System: Logging ===================
# Set the value of this setting to off to suppress all logging output, or to debug to log everything. Defaults to 'info'
#logging.root.level: debug

# Enables you to specify a file where Kibana stores log output.
#logging.appenders.default:
#  type: file
#  fileName: /var/logs/kibana.log
#  layout:
#    type: json

# Example with size based log rotation
#logging.appenders.default:
#  type: rolling-file
#  fileName: /var/logs/kibana.log
#  policy:
#    type: size-limit
#    size: 256mb
#  strategy:
#    type: numeric
#    max: 10
#  layout:
#    type: json

# Logs queries sent to Elasticsearch.
#logging.loggers:
#  - name: elasticsearch.query
#    level: debug

# Logs http responses.
#logging.loggers:
#  - name: http.server.response
#    level: debug

# Logs system usage information.
#logging.loggers:
#  - name: metrics.ops
#    level: debug

# Enables debug logging on the browser (dev console)
#logging.browser.root:
#  level: debug

# =================== System: Other ===================
# The path where Kibana stores persistent data not saved in Elasticsearch. Defaults to data
#path.data: data

# Specifies the path where Kibana creates the process ID file.
#pid.file: /run/kibana/kibana.pid

# Set the interval in milliseconds to sample system and process performance
# metrics. Minimum is 100ms. Defaults to 5000ms.
#ops.interval: 5000

# Specifies locale to be used for all localizable strings, dates and number formats.
# Supported languages are the following: English (default) "en", Chinese "zh-CN", Japanese "ja-JP", French "fr-FR".
#i18n.locale: "en"

# =================== Frequently used (Optional)===================

# =================== Saved Objects: Migrations ===================
# Saved object migrations run at startup. If you run into migration-related issues, you might need to adjust these settings.

# The number of documents migrated at a time.
# If Kibana can't start up or upgrade due to an Elasticsearch `circuit_breaking_exception`,
# use a smaller batchSize value to reduce the memory pressure. Defaults to 1000 objects per batch.
#migrations.batchSize: 1000

# The maximum payload size for indexing batches of upgraded saved objects.
# To avoid migrations failing due to a 413 Request Entity Too Large response from Elasticsearch.
# This value should be lower than or equal to your Elasticsearch cluster’s `http.max_content_length`
# configuration option. Default: 100mb
#migrations.maxBatchSizeBytes: 100mb

# The number of times to retry temporary migration failures. Increase the setting
# if migrations fail frequently with a message such as `Unable to complete the [...] step after
# 15 attempts, terminating`. Defaults to 15
#migrations.retryAttempts: 15

# =================== Search Autocomplete ===================
# Time in milliseconds to wait for autocomplete suggestions from Elasticsearch.
# This value must be a whole number greater than zero. Defaults to 1000ms
#unifiedSearch.autocomplete.valueSuggestions.timeout: 1000

# Maximum number of documents loaded by each shard to generate autocomplete suggestions.
# This value must be a whole number greater than zero. Defaults to 100_000
#unifiedSearch.autocomplete.valueSuggestions.terminateAfter: 100000


server.ssl.enabled: true
server.ssl.certificate: /home/ec2-user/kibana-8.19.9/config/certs/kibana.crt
server.ssl.key: /home/ec2-user/kibana-8.19.9/config/certs/kibana.key

Then restart kibana server.

./bin/kibana

and check on browser.

SSL Guide: 2-Node Elasticsearch & Kibana

steps

First Install elasticsearch in our server.

Now we can secure one more node.

Let’s secure kibana server.

Now your elasticsearch nodes and kibana is secure..!!

Comments

Command Palette

steps

First Install elasticsearch in our server.

Now we can secure one more node.

Let’s secure kibana server.

Now your elasticsearch nodes and kibana is secure..!!

Comments