Kibana

Kibana enables you to interactively explore, visualize, and share insights into your network flow data, as well as manage and monitor Elasticsearch.

Download Kibana Objects

The Kibana dashboards and related configuration artifacts can be easily imported. You must first download the relevant import file, depending on the configuration of your environment.

Kibana Objects for Network Flow Data

Version

Schema

Saved Objects

8.2.x - 8.6.x

CODEX

kibana-8.2.x-flow-codex.ndjson

8.2.x - 8.6.x

ECS

kibana-8.2.x-flow-ecs.ndjson

7.17.x - 8.1.x

CODEX

kibana-7.17.x-flow-codex.ndjson

7.17.x - 8.1.x

ECS

kibana-7.17.x-flow-ecs.ndjson

Kibana Objects for SNMP Telemetry Data

Version

Schema

Saved Objects

8.2.x - 8.6.x

CODEX

kibana-8.2.x-snmp-codex.ndjson

8.2.x - 8.6.x

ECS

kibana-8.2.x-snmp-ecs.ndjson

7.17.x - 8.1.x

CODEX

kibana-7.17.x-snmp-codex.ndjson

7.17.x - 8.1.x

ECS

kibana-7.17.x-snmp-ecs.ndjson

Import Kibana Objects

Importing via the User Interface

To import the configuration, in Kibana go to Stack Management --> Saved Objects and click Import in the upper right corner.

A side-bar will appear. Again click Import at the top of the side-bar.

Select the file which you downloaded, and click the Import button at the bottom of the side-bar.

The configuration will be imported and you will see all of the imported objects.

Close the side-bar. You will also see all of the imported objects in the Saved Objects list.

Importing via the API

curl -XPOST "https://username:password@IPORHOSTOFKIBANA:5601/api/saved_objects/_import?overwrite=true" -k -H "kbn-xsrf: true" -H "securitytenant: global" --form file=@kibana-7.14.x-ecs-light.ndjson

Troubleshooting Import Problems

When the Kibana import fails neither the import UI nor the Kibana logs will provide any useful information. However attempting to import via curl will usually provide more detail.

The most common issue is related to the relative large size of the Kibana Saved Objects file. This can cause the import to fail unless the maximum allowed payload size is increased. The Kibana setting is server.maxPayloadBytes (or SERVER_MAXPAYLOADBYTES if using Docker), which should also be set to 8388608.

If you have a reverse proxy in front of Kibana, you may have to modify your proxy settings as well. Many reverse proxies also have relatively low values for the maximum body size. For example the NGINX default is only 1MB. This can be increased by setting client_max_body_size to 8388608. Refer to the documentation for your proxy software to similarly modify its behavior.

Recommended Kibana Advanced Settings

Settings for All Kibana Distributions

You may find that modifying a few of the Kibana advanced settings will produce a more user-friendly experience while using ElastiFlow. These settings are made in Kibana, under Stack Management -> Kibana -> Advanced Settings.

Advanced Setting

Value

Why make the change?

filters:pinnedByDefault

true

Pinning a filter allows it to persist when you are changing dashboards. This is very useful when drilling-down into something of interest and you want to change dashboards for a different perspective of the same data. This is the #1 setting we recommend changing.

defaultRoute

see description

If your primary or only use-case for Kibana is ElastiFlow, set this the URL path for the dashboard to which you which to load immediately after logging in, or when returning to "home". The format of this value is /app/dashboards#/view/4a608bc0-3d3e-11eb-bc2c-c5758316d788.

doc_table:highlight

false

There be a query performance penalty that comes with using the highlighting feature. As it isn't very useful for this use-case, it is better to just turn it off.

state:storeInSessionStorage

true

Kibana URLs can get pretty large. Especially when working with Vega visualizations. This will likely result in error messages for users of Internet Explorer. Using in-session storage will fix this issue for these users.

theme:darkMode

true or false

Enable dark mode for the Kibana UI. This setting should match the ndjson import file discussed above.

timepicker:timeDefaults

see below

The Time Picker Quick Range to use when Kibana is started without one.

timepicker:quickRanges

see below

The default options in the Time Picker are less than optimal, for most logging and monitoring use-cases. Fortunately Kibana now allows you to customize the time picker. Our recommended settings can be found below.

format:number:defaultPattern

0,0.[00]

Default numeral format for the "number" format.

format:percent:defaultPattern

0,0.[00]%

Default numeral format for the "percent" format.

Recommended Time Picker Time Defaults (timepicker:timeDefaults)

We find that the following Time Picker Time Default provides more useful views of the data for network flow related use-cases.

{
  "from": "now-1h/m",
  "to": "now"
}

Recommended Time Picker Quick Ranges (timepicker:quickRanges)

We find that the following set of Time Picker Quick Ranges provides more useful views of the data for network flow related use-cases.

[
  {
    "from": "now-15m/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 15 minutes"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-30m/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 30 minutes"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-1h/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 1 hour"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-2h/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 2 hours"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-4h/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 4 hours"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-12h/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 12 hours"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-24h/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 24 hours"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-48h/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 48 hours"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-7d/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 7 days"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-30d/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 30 days"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-60d/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 60 days"
  },
  {
    "from": "now-90d/m",
    "to": "now/m",
    "display": "Last 90 days"
  }
]

Settings for Elastic's X-Pack Features

:::note The following settings require that the ElastiFlow Unified Flow Collector is used with an Elastic Stack deployment licensed for X-Pack Basic or higher. The collector's Elasticsearch output must also be configured with ECS-support enabled (set EF_OUTPUT_ELASTICSEARCH_ECS_ENABLE to true). :::

Advanced Setting

Value

Why make the change?

securitySolution:ipReputationLinks

see below

Modifying these settings provides a more seamless integration with the RiskIQ PassiveTotal service while using Kibana's Security app.

securitySolution:defaultIndex

add elastiflow-flow-ecs-*

Add the ElastiFlow index pattern, with support for ECS, to populate the Kibana's Security app with data network flow records from ElastiFlow.

securitySolution:timeDefaults

see below

For the best experience set this value similar to timepicker:timeDefaults.

Recommended IP Reputation Links (securitySolution:ipReputationLinks)

[
  { "name": "RiskIQ", "url_template": "https://community.riskiq.com/research?query={{ip}}" },
  { "name": "VirusTotal", "url_template": "https://www.virustotal.com/gui/search/{{ip}}" }
]

Recommended Security Solution Time Defaults (securitySolution:timeDefaults)

We find that the following Security Solution Time Default provides more useful views of the data for network flow related use-cases.

{
  "from": "now-1h/m",
  "to": "now"
}

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