Beginner's guide to setting up Elasticsearch and Kibana with Elastic Cloud
Tags: database, datascience, elasticsearch, beginners
Published: 2021-02-15 18:01:12

You probably search for repos or source code on Github on a daily basis. But did you know that Elasticsearch was powering your search? 

![image](https://media.giphy.com/media/L4Bb7zCaP8FB5C769T/giphy.gif)

Elasticsearch is a search and analytics engine that allows you to store, search, and analyze your data. Coupled with Kibana (a UI designed to visualize and explore data in Elasticsearch), you can design a fantastic search experience for your app users! 

### Resources
This blog will cover how you can set up Elasticsearch and Kibana hosted on Elastic Cloud. 

For more comprehensive overview of Elasticsearch and Kibana, check out:

- my blog on [Beginner's guide to Elasticsearch](https://dev.to/lisahjung/beginner-s-guide-to-elasticsearch-4j2k)
- my workshop part 1 of [Beginner's Crash Course to Elastic Stack Series Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS_nHTWZEJ8&list=PL_mJOmq4zsHZYAyK606y7wjQtC0aoE6Es)

###How to access Elasticsearch and Kibana
You have multiple options to access Elasticsearch and Kibana. 

#### Option 1: Download Elasticsearch and Kibana and manage these on your own. 

In a previous [blog](https://dev.to/elastic/downloading-elasticsearch-and-kibana-macos-linux-and-windows-1mmo), we covered how you can download and run Elasticsearch and Kibana on your local machine. This option is free and there is no expiration date!

#### Option 2: Access Elasticsearch and Kibana hosted on Elastic Cloud. 

Unlike the downloaded option, the Elastic Cloud manages all the heavy lifting of managing the stack so you can focus on building your product instead.

For more details on the benefits of using Elastic Cloud, check out this page [here](https://www.elastic.co/cloud/shared-responsibility)!

With this [link](https://ela.st/elastic-beginners), you get a free 30 day trial. There is no credit card required and the trial expires on its own.

This blog will cover how you can set up Elasticsearch and Kibana on Elastic Cloud so you can explore all the cool things these products can do! 

### How to set up Elasticsearch and Kibana on Elastic Cloud

**Step 1: Go to the [Elastic Cloud trial page](https://ela.st/elastic-beginners)**

The free trial is usually offered for 14 days. But with this [link](https://ela.st/elastic-beginners), you get an extended free 30 day trial! 

**Step 2: Enter your email and click on `Start Free Trial` button(red box)**

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107967353-3c129780-6f6a-11eb-9a20-075a05de7b45.png) 

Upon entering your email, Elastic Cloud will prompt you to verify your email.  

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107967498-695f4580-6f6a-11eb-883a-864f3034048f.png)

**Step 3: Open the email from Elastic. Click on `Verify and Accept` button(red box)**

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107967668-a592a600-6f6a-11eb-9234-d05f1b087e5f.png)

**Step 4: Set your password and login(red box)**

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107967799-d246bd80-6f6a-11eb-994b-c1eedd8021e9.png)

**Step 5: Click on `Start your free trial` button(red box)**

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107967893-ef7b8c00-6f6a-11eb-8e77-90fc9a378d20.png)

**Step 6: Select the `Elastic Stack` option(red box)**

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107967993-0d48f100-6f6b-11eb-8ee9-2dffb48da297.png)

**Step 7: Configure your setting**

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107968090-281b6580-6f6b-11eb-803a-db2270269cfa.png)

When you select the `Elastic Stack` option, you will see a dropdown menu where you can configure your settings. 

*1) Select a deployment template*
If you look under Select hardware profile(turquoise box), Elasticsearch offers several deployment templates for different use cases and workload. 

Each template selects the appropriate cloud hardware configuration for different needs. If you are just getting started or do not quite know your needs yet, then go with the recommended `I/O Optimized` option(red box). 

*2) Choose a cloud provider of your choice(orange box)*
If you would like to use Elasticsearch with an app running on a public cloud, make sure to run Elasticsearch using the same cloud provider to avoid latency issues. 

If you do not have an app running on a pubic cloud and you are simply curious about exploring what Elastic cloud can do, choose any of these cloud providers to get started!

*3) Select the region close to you(yellow box)*
You are specifying the location of your deployment here. 

*4) Select the latest version of the Elastic Stack(green box)*
The current version of Elastic Stack is 7.10.1 at the time of this blog's publication. 

**Step 8: Name and create your deployment**

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107969321-df64ac00-6f6c-11eb-99a1-66f806e31eed.png)

Name your deployment(blue box) to whatever that makes sense for your use case. I named mine after my [Beginner's Crash Course to Elastic Stack Series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS_nHTWZEJ8&list=PL_mJOmq4zsHZYAyK606y7wjQtC0aoE6Es)! 

Then click on `Create deployment` button(red box).

**Step 9: Save your deployment credentials**
![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107969836-88aba200-6f6d-11eb-9667-f3480115468c.png)

When you create your deployment, you will see a pop up window with Elastic deployment credentials. These credentials will become handy when you add data to Kibana. Either download the credentials or save it somewhere as these are only shown once. 

When you click on download or continue without downloading(red box), it will create your deployment and load Kibana. 

**Step 10: Click on `Open Kibana` option(red box)**
![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107972002-6ff0bb80-6f70-11eb-9066-469f9f0ed54c.png)

At this point, both Elasticsearch and Kibana are up and running! The next step is to ingest data and explore data using Elasticsearch and Kibana. 

**Step 11: Click on `Explore on my own` option**
![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107972590-4edc9a80-6f71-11eb-8455-e4c09cab274d.png)

You can choose to `add data`(blue button) and start exploring data right away or you can start poking around Elastic Cloud to see what is offered. Click on `Explore on my own` option.

**Step 12: Go to the Kibana console**
![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60980933/107972211-bf36ec00-6f70-11eb-868a-e8421b979c77.png)

The Kibana console allows you to send search requests from Kibana to Elasticsearch. This is a great tool to explore data in Elasticsearch and to test out different queries to finetune your app's search experience. 

Click on menu icon in the upper left corner of your screen(red box). Scroll all the way down to Management section then click on `dev tools`(blue box). 

**Step 13: Start exploring what you can do with Elasticsearch and Kibana**

The step by step guide is covered in my [Beginner's Crash Course to Elastic Stack Series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS_nHTWZEJ8&list=PL_mJOmq4zsHZYAyK606y7wjQtC0aoE6Es). 

*Part 1*
This workshop will show you how you can perform CRUD(Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations with Elasticsearch and Kibana. 

[Part 1 GitHub repo](https://github.com/LisaHJung/Part-1-Intro-to-Elasticsearch-and-Kibana/blob/main/README.md) contains:
- the video recording of the workshop. Timestamp 25:03 will take you directly to the CRUD operations section. 
- all the requests needed to perform CRUD operations with Elasticsearch and Kibana. 

*Part 2*
This workshop will show you how you can send search queries from Kibana to Elasticsearch and how you can finetune the relevance of your search results. 

[Part 2 GitHub repo](https://github.com/LisaHJung/Part-2-Understanding-the-relevance-of-your-search-with-Elasticsearch-and-Kibana-) contains the video recording of this workshops as well as all the queries and aggregations requests covered during the workshop. 

The following timestamps mark the topics you may want to explore after setting up Elasticsearch and Kibana on Elastic Cloud: 
- How to set up Elastic Cloud and upload data 14:29​
- Queries and Aggregations used for search  21:56​
- Queries used to finetune Precision or Recall 33:33

There you have it. Now, go explore what you can do! 

![image](https://media.giphy.com/media/RiEW6mSQqjRiDy51MI/giphy.gif)