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Elasticsearch Guide [8.1] » Roll up or transform your data » Transforming data » Set up transforms
« Transform overview When to use transforms »

Set up transforms

Requirements overview

To use transforms, you must have:

  • at least one transform node,
  • management features visible in the Kibana space, and

  • security privileges that:

    • grant use of transforms, and
    • grant access to source and destination indices

Security privileges

Assigning security privileges affects how users access transforms. Consider the two main categories:

  • Elasticsearch API user: uses an Elasticsearch client, cURL, or Kibana Dev Tools to access transforms via Elasticsearch APIs. This scenario requires Elasticsearch security privileges.
  • Kibana user: uses transforms in Kibana. This scenario requires Kibana feature privileges and Elasticsearch security privileges.
Elasticsearch API user

To manage transforms, you must meet all of the following requirements:

  • transform_admin built-in role or manage_transform cluster privileges,
  • read and view_index_metadata index privileges on source indices, and
  • create_index, index, manage, and read index privileges on destination indices

To view only the configuration and status of transforms, you must have:

  • transform_user built-in role or monitor_transform cluster privileges

For more information about Elasticsearch roles and privileges, refer to Built-in roles and Security privileges.

Kibana user

Within a Kibana space, for full access to transforms, you must meet all of the following requirements:

  • Management features visible in the Kibana space, including Data View Management and Stack Monitoring,
  • monitoring_user built-in role,
  • transform_admin built-in role or manage_transform cluster privileges,
  • kibana_admin built-in role or a custom role with read or all Kibana privileges for the Data View Management feature (dependent on whether data views already exist for your destination indices),
  • data views for your source indices,
  • read and view_index_metadata index privileges on source indices, and
  • create_index, index, manage, and read index privileges on destination indices
  • read_pipeline cluster privileges, if the transform uses an ingest pipeline

Within a Kibana space, for read-only access to transforms, you must meet all of the following requirements:

  • Management features visible in the Kibana space, including Stack Monitoring,
  • monitoring_user built-in role,
  • transform_user built-in role or monitor_transform cluster privileges,
  • kibana_admin built-in role or a custom role with read Kibana privileges for at least one feature in the space,
  • data views for your source and destination indices, and
  • read, and view_index_metadata index privileges on source indices and destination indices

For more information and Kibana security features, see Kibana role management and Kibana privileges.

Kibana spaces

Spaces enable you to organize your source and destination indices and other saved objects in Kibana and to see only the objects that belong to your space. However, this limited scope does not apply to transforms; they are visible in all spaces.

To successfully create transforms in Kibana, you must be logged into a space where the source indices are visible and the Data View Management and Stack Monitoring features are visible.

« Transform overview When to use transforms »