docs/reference/connecting-to-cloud.md
{{ech}} simplifies safe, secure communication between {{ls}} and {{es}}.
When you configure the Elasticsearch output plugin to use cloud_id with either the cloud_auth option or the api_key option, no additional SSL configuration is needed.
Examples:
output {elasticsearch { cloud_id => "<cloud id>" cloud_auth => "<cloud auth>" } }output {elasticsearch { cloud_id => "<cloud id>" api_key => "<api key>" } }Note that the value of the api_key option is in the format id:api_key, where id and api_key are the values returned by the Create API key API.
{{ess-leadin-short}}
{{ls}} uses the Cloud ID, found in the Elastic Cloud web console, to build the Elasticsearch and Kibana hosts settings. It is a base64 encoded text value of about 120 characters made up of upper and lower case letters and numbers. If you have several Cloud IDs, you can add a label, which is ignored internally, to help you tell them apart. To add a label, prefix your Cloud ID with a label and a : separator in this format "<label>:<cloud-id>".
Cloud Auth is optional. Construct this value by following this format "<username>:<password>". Use your Cloud username for the first part. Use your Cloud password for the second part, which is given once in the Cloud UI when you create a cluster. If you change your Cloud password in the Cloud UI, remember to change it here, too.
The Elasticsearch input, output, and filter plugins, as well as the Elastic_integration filter plugin, support cloud_id and cloud_auth in their configurations.
These settings in the logstash.yml config file can help you get set up to use Central Pipeline Management in Elastic Cloud:
xpack.management.elasticsearch.cloud_idxpack.management.elasticsearch.cloud_authYou can use the xpack.management.elasticsearch.cloud_id setting as an alternative to xpack.management.elasticsearch.hosts.
You can use the xpack.management.elasticsearch.cloud_auth setting as an alternative to both xpack.management.elasticsearch.username and xpack.management.elasticsearch.password. The credentials you specify here should be for a user with the logstash_admin role, which provides access to .logstash-* indices for managing configurations.