Kibana: Login screen is shown when ES down, regardless of security

[clintongormley]

Kibana version: 6.3.0

Elasticsearch version: 6.3.0

Describe the bug:

If the elasticsearch cluster is down, Kibana shows the following screen:

.... which doesn't make much sense if you don't have security enabled. Perhaps we should just show a cluster-unreachable message instead? Also, there's no indication of the need to refresh that page in order to continue after the ES cluster is back up. Could we not keep trying to reach the cluster (and make obvious that we are doing so on this page?)

[epixa]

Do you see this when security is disabled in Kibana or just when it is disabled in Elasticsearch?

[clintongormley]

I see this with the default settings in Kibana 6.3.0. If I look at the log, I see that the security plugin is enabled, and I see no (obvious) way of disabling it in the config.

[epixa]

This was the intended experience with security enabled in Kibana, but now that security is technically enabled by default for most users, it doesn't really make sense.

I think your proposal of having a dedicated elasticsearch-inaccessible page makes a lot of sense. Folks with security didn't want the whole status page being shown in this scenario since they felt there was too much information about their install to show to unauthenticated users, but I think a simple notice that Elasticsearch is not accessible and that admins should consult the logs for details makes sense.

This is another area where I really wish we had a definitive production/non-production mode in Kibana similar to how it works in Elasticsearch. I'd love to show detailed information and even steps to rectify the problem in the error page when not in production and just point people to logs otherwise, but alas we have no such flexibility at the moment.

[epixa]

@elastic/kibana-platform

[jimgoodwin]

@tylersmalley @jinmu03 Is it possible to fix this for 6.4 ?

[tylersmalley]

@jimgoodwin We're working hard to try and get this in for 6.4, but no guarantees. I expect to have a PR up today.

[AlonaNadler]

Following a quick sync with @tylersmalley trying to fit this into 6.4,
Once ES is down Kibana will refer to a page with a similar layout but without the login form and button, instead, we will show a message explaining that Kibana couldn't reach Elasticsearch, this situation might happen since:

• Elasticsearch is down and can't be reached, please make sure Elasticsearch is up and running
• Kibana is pointing to a wrong elasticsearch.url in the yml file, please make sure the yml file is pointing to the right URL

cc: @gchaps can you please help with the error message

[debadair]

Stepping in for @gchaps since she's out this week. Here's my recommendation:

Cannot connect to Elasticsearch

The cluster might be down or Kibana might have failed to connect due to a network or configuration problem.

Administrators, verify that the Elasticsearch cluster is available and elasticsearch.url is configured correctly in kibana.yml. See the Kibana logs for more information.