[[setup]]
== Installing Kibana
You can set up Kibana and start exploring your Elasticsearch indices in minutes.
All you need is:

* Elasticsearch {esversion}
* A modern web browser - https://www.elastic.co/support/matrix#show_browsers[Supported Browsers].
* Information about your Elasticsearch installation:
** URL of the Elasticsearch instance you want to connect to.
** Which Elasticsearch indices you want to search.

NOTE: If your Elasticsearch installation is protected by http://www.elastic.co/overview/shield/[{scyld}], see
{shield}/kibana.html#using-kibana4-with-shield[{scyld} with Kibana] for additional setup instructions.

=== Upgrading Kibana

Your existing Kibana version is generally compatible with the next minor version release of Elasticsearch.
This means you should upgrade your Elasticsearch cluster(s) before or at the same time as Kibana.
We cannot guarantee compatibility between major version releases so in those cases both Elasticsearch and Kibana must be upgraded together.

To upgrade Kibana:

. Create a https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/modules-snapshots.html[snapshot] of the existing `.kibana` index.
. Back up the `kibana.yml` configuration file.
. Take note of the Kibana plugins that are installed:
 * `bin/kibana plugin --list` on 4.x versions of Kibana.
 * `bin/kibana-plugin list` on 5.x versions of Kibana.
. To upgrade from an Archive File:
.. Extract the new version of Kibana into a different directory.  See steps below.
.. Migrate any custom configuration from your old kibana.yml to your new one
.. Follow other steps below to complete the new installation.
.. Once the new version is fully configured and working with required plugins, remove the previous version of Kibana
. To upgrade using a Linux Package Manager:
.. Uninstall the existing Kibana package: `apt-get remove kibana` or `yum remove kibana`
.. Install the new Kibana package.   There have been some installer issues between various version of Kibana so the uninstall and install process is safer than an upgrade.


[float]
[[install]]
=== Install and Start Kibana from an Archive File

To get Kibana up and running:

. Download the https://www.elastic.co/downloads/kibana[Kibana {version} binary package] for your platform.
. Extract the `.zip` or `tar.gz` archive file.
. If you're upgrading, migrate any configuration changes from the previous `kibana.yml` to the new version.
. Install Kibana plugins (optional).
. Run Kibana from the install directory: `bin/kibana` (Linux/MacOSX) or `bin\kibana.bat` (Windows).

On Unix, you can instead run the package manager suited for your distribution.

////
[float]
include::kibana-repositories.asciidoc[]
////

That's it! Kibana is now running on port 5601.

[float]
[[kibana-dynamic-mapping]]
==== Kibana and Elasticsearch Dynamic Mapping
By default, Elasticsearch enables {ref}dynamic-mapping.html[dynamic mapping] for fields. Kibana needs dynamic mapping
to use fields in visualizations correctly, as well as to manage the `.kibana` index where saved searches,
visualizations, and dashboards are stored.

If your Elasticsearch use case requires you to disable dynamic mapping, you need to manually provide mappings for
fields that Kibana uses to create visualizations. You also need to manually enable dynamic mapping for the `.kibana`
index.

The following procedure assumes that the `.kibana` index does not already exist in Elasticsearch and that the
`index.mapper.dynamic` setting in `elasticsearch.yml` is set to `false`:

. Start Elasticsearch.
. Create the `.kibana` index with dynamic mapping enabled just for that index:
+
[source,shell]
PUT .kibana
{
	"index.mapper.dynamic": true
}
+
. Start Kibana and navigate to the web UI and verify that there are no error messages related to dynamic mapping.

[float]
[[connect]]
=== Connect Kibana with Elasticsearch
Before you can start using Kibana, you need to tell it which Elasticsearch indices you want to explore. The first time
you access Kibana, you are prompted to define an _index pattern_ that matches the name of one or more of your indices.
That's it. That's all you need to configure to start using Kibana. You can add index patterns at any time from the
<<settings-create-pattern,Settings tab>>.

TIP: By default, Kibana connects to the Elasticsearch instance running on `localhost`. To connect to a different
Elasticsearch instance, modify the Elasticsearch URL in the `kibana.yml` configuration file and restart Kibana. For
information about using Kibana with your production nodes, see <<production>>.

To configure the Elasticsearch indices you want to access with Kibana:

. Point your browser at port 5601 to access the Kibana UI. For example, `localhost:5601` or `http://YOURDOMAIN.com:5601`.
+
image:images/Start-Page.png[Kibana start page]
+
. Specify an index pattern that matches the name of one or more of your Elasticsearch indices. By default, Kibana
guesses that you're working with data being fed into Elasticsearch by Logstash. If that's the case, you can use the
default `logstash-*` as your index pattern. The asterisk (*) matches zero or more characters in an index's name. If
your Elasticsearch indices follow some other naming convention, enter an appropriate pattern. The "pattern" can also
simply be the name of a single index.
. Select the index field that contains the timestamp that you want to use to perform time-based comparisons. Kibana
reads the index mapping to list all of the fields that contain a timestamp. If your index doesn't have time-based data,
disable the *Index contains time-based events* option.
+
WARNING: Using event times to create index names is *deprecated* in this release of Kibana. Starting in the 2.1
release, Elasticsearch includes sophisticated date parsing APIs that Kibana uses to determine date information,
removing the need to specify dates in the index pattern name.
+
. Click *Create* to add the index pattern. This first pattern is automatically configured as the default.
When you have more than one index pattern, you can designate which one to use as the default from *Settings > Indices*.

All done! Kibana is now connected to your Elasticsearch data. Kibana displays a read-only list of fields configured for
the matching index.

[float]
[[explore]]
=== Start Exploring your Data!
You're ready to dive in to your data:

* Search and browse your data interactively from the <<discover, Discover>> page.
* Chart and map your data from the <<visualize, Visualize>> page.
* Create and view custom dashboards from the <<dashboard, Dashboard>> page.

For a tutorial that explores these core Kibana concepts, take a look at the <<getting-started, Getting
Started>> page.
