kibana/docs/management/action-types.asciidoc

[role="xpack"]
[[action-types]]
== Connectors

Connectors provide a central place to store connection information for services and integrations with third party systems. Actions are instantiations of a connector that are linked to rules and run as background tasks on the {kib} server when rule conditions are met. {kib} provides the following types of connectors:

[cols="2"]
|===

a| <<email-action-type, Email>>

| Send email from your server.

a| <<resilient-action-type, IBM Resilient>>

| Create an incident in IBM Resilient.

a| <<index-action-type, Index>>

| Index data into Elasticsearch.

a| <<jira-action-type, Jira>>

| Create an incident in Jira.

a| <<teams-action-type, Microsoft Teams>>

| Send a message to a Microsoft Teams channel.

a| <<pagerduty-action-type, PagerDuty>>

| Send an event in PagerDuty.

a| <<server-log-action-type, ServerLog>>

| Add a message to a Kibana log.

a| <<servicenow-action-type, ServiceNow>>

| Create an incident in ServiceNow.

a| <<slack-action-type, Slack>>

| Send a message to a Slack channel or user.

a| <<swimlane-action-type, Swimlane>>

| Create an incident in Swimlane.

a| <<webhook-action-type, Webhook>>

| Send a request to a web service.
|===

[NOTE]
==============================================
Some connector types are paid commercial features, while others are free.
For a comparison of the Elastic subscription levels,
see https://www.elastic.co/subscriptions[the subscription page].
==============================================

[float]
[[connector-management]]
=== Managing Connectors

Rules use *Connectors* to route actions to different destinations like log files, ticketing systems, and messaging tools. While each {kib} app can offer their own types of rules, they typically share connectors. The *Connectors* tab offers a central place to view and manage all the connectors in the current space.

For more information on connectors and the types of actions available see <<action-types>>.

[role="screenshot"]
image::images/connector-listing.png[Example connector listing in the Rules and Connectors UI]

[float]
=== Required permissions

Access to connectors is granted based on your privileges to alerting-enabled features. See <<alerting-security, Alerting Security>> for more information.

[float]
=== Connector networking configuration

Use the <<action-settings, Action configuration settings>> to customize connector networking configurations, such as proxies, certificates, or TLS settings. You can set configurations that apply to all your connectors or use `xpack.actions.customHostSettings` to set per-host configurations.

[float]
[[connectors-list]]
=== Connector list

The *Connectors* tab lists all connectors in the current space. The *search bar* can be used to find specific connectors by name and/or type.

[role="screenshot"]
image::images/connector-filter-by-search.png[Filtering the connector list using the search bar]


The *type* dropdown also lets you filter to a subset of connector types.

[role="screenshot"]
image::images/connector-filter-by-type.png[Filtering the connector list by types of connectors]

You can delete individual connectors using the trash icon. Connectors can also be deleted in bulk by multi-selecting them and clicking the *Delete* button to the left of the search box. 

[role="screenshot"]
image::images/connector-delete.png[Deleting connectors individually or in bulk]

[NOTE]
============================================================================
You can delete a connector even if there are still actions referencing it.
When this happens the action will fail to execute, and appear as errors in the {kib} logs.
============================================================================

[float]
[[creating-new-connector]]
=== Creating a new connector

New connectors can be created by clicking the *Create connector* button, which will guide you to select the type of connector and configure its properties. Refer to <<action-types>> for the types of connectors available and how to configure them. Once you create a connector it will be made available to you anytime you set up an action in the current space.

[role="screenshot"]
image::images/connector-select-type.png[Connector select type]

[float]
[[importing-and-exporting-connectors]]
=== Importing and exporting connectors

To import and export connectors, use the <<managing-saved-objects, Saved Objects Management UI>>.
After a successful import, the proper banner is displayed:
[role="screenshot"]
image::images/coonectors-import-banner.png[Connectors import banner, width=50%]

If a connector is missing user sensitive information because of the import,  a **Fix** button appears in the list view.
[role="screenshot"]
image::images/connectors-with-missing-secrets.png[Connectors with missing secrets]

[float]
[[create-connectors]]
=== Preconfigured connectors

For out-of-the-box and standardized connectors, you can <<preconfigured-connector-example, preconfigure connectors>>
before {kib} starts.

[float]
[[montoring-connectors]]
=== Monitoring connectors

The <<task-manager-health-monitoring,Task Manager health API>> helps you understand the performance of all tasks in your environment.
However, if connectors fail to execute, they will report as successful to Task Manager. The failure stats will not
accurately depict the performance of connectors.

For more information on connector successes and failures, refer to the <<event-log-index,Event log index>>.

include::connectors/index.asciidoc[]