Kibana Tutorial

Introduction to Kibana

Kibana is an open-source data visualization and exploration tool used for log and time-series analytics, application monitoring, and operational intelligence use cases. It provides a powerful and flexible platform to visualize data from Elasticsearch.

Installing Kibana

Before you can use Kibana, you need to have Elasticsearch installed and running. You can install Kibana using the following command for your operating system.

sudo apt-get install kibana

sudo yum install kibana

Once installed, start the Kibana service:

sudo systemctl start kibana

Enable Kibana to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable kibana

Accessing Kibana

After starting the Kibana service, you can access the Kibana web interface by navigating to http://localhost:5601 in your web browser.

Loading Sample Data

Kibana provides sample data sets that you can use to explore the features of Kibana. To load sample data:

1. Go to the Kibana home page.
2. Click on "Add Data" in the side navigation.
3. Select a sample data set and click "Add data".

Creating Visualizations

Kibana allows you to create various types of visualizations such as bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and more. To create a visualization:

1. Navigate to the "Visualize" app in the Kibana sidebar.
2. Click on "Create new visualization".
3. Select the type of visualization you want to create.
4. Choose the data source (index pattern) for your visualization.
5. Configure the visualization options such as metrics and buckets.

Creating Dashboards

Dashboards in Kibana allow you to combine multiple visualizations into a single view, providing a comprehensive overview of your data. To create a dashboard:

1. Navigate to the "Dashboard" app in the Kibana sidebar.
2. Click on "Create new dashboard".
3. Click on "Add" to add visualizations or saved searches to your dashboard.
4. Arrange and resize the visualizations as needed.
5. Click "Save" to save your dashboard.

Exploring Data with Discover

The Discover app in Kibana allows you to interactively explore your data and perform ad-hoc queries. To use Discover:

1. Navigate to the "Discover" app in the Kibana sidebar.
2. Select the index pattern you want to explore.
3. Use the search bar to query your data.
4. Use the time picker to filter data by time range.

Configuring Index Patterns

Index patterns in Kibana allow you to define how Kibana accesses data stored in Elasticsearch indices. To configure an index pattern:

1. Navigate to the "Management" app in the Kibana sidebar.
2. Click on "Index Patterns".
3. Click on "Create index pattern".
4. Enter the name of the index or indices you want to include in the pattern (e.g., logstash-*).
5. Select a time field to use for time-based data (if applicable).
6. Click "Create index pattern".

Saving and Sharing Visualizations and Dashboards

Kibana allows you to save and share your visualizations and dashboards with others. To save a visualization or dashboard:

1. Click the "Save" button in the top-right corner of the visualization or dashboard page.
2. Enter a name for your saved object.
3. Click "Save".

To share a saved visualization or dashboard:

1. Click the "Share" button in the top-right corner of the visualization or dashboard page.
2. Copy the provided link or embed code to share with others.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we covered the basics of Kibana, including installation, accessing the web interface, loading sample data, creating visualizations and dashboards, exploring data with Discover, configuring index patterns, and saving and sharing your work. Kibana is a powerful tool that can help you gain insights into your data stored in Elasticsearch.