Elastic
Loading

Remote clusters

ECE ECK Elastic Cloud Hosted Self Managed

By setting up remote clusters, you can connect an Elasticsearch cluster to other Elasticsearch clusters. Remote clusters can be located in different data centers, geographic regions, and run on a different type of environment: Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, or self-managed.

Remote clusters are especially useful in two cases:

  • Cross-cluster replication
    With cross-cluster replication, or CCR, you ingest data to an index on a remote cluster. This leader index is replicated to one or more read-only follower indices on your local cluster. Creating a multi-cluster architecture with cross-cluster replication enables you to configure disaster recovery, bring data closer to your users, or establish a centralized reporting cluster to process reports locally.

  • Cross-cluster search
    Cross-cluster search, or CCS, enables you to run a search request against one or more remote clusters. This capability provides each region with a global view of all clusters, allowing you to send a search request from a local cluster and return results from all connected remote clusters. For full cross-cluster search capabilities, the local and remote cluster must be on the same subscription level.

Note about terminology

In the case of remote clusters, the Elasticsearch cluster or deployment initiating the connection and requests is often referred to as the local cluster, while the Elasticsearch cluster or deployment receiving the requests is referred to as the remote cluster.

Depending on the environment the local and remote clusters are deployed on and the security model you wish to use, the exact details needed to add a remote cluster vary but generally follow the same path:

  1. Configure trust between clusters. In the settings of the local deployment or cluster, configure the trust security model that your remote connections will use to access the remote cluster. This step involves specifying API keys or certificates retrieved from the remote clusters.

  2. Establish the connection. In Kibana on the local cluster, finalize the connection by specifying each remote cluster's details.

Find the instructions with details on the supported security models and available connection modes for your specific scenario: