Advanced configuration for Dashboard Only mode

Kibana comes preconfigured with a reserved role called kibana_dashboard_only_user which will be sufficient for most use cases. However, if your setup requires a custom Kibana index, you can manually create Dashboard Mode roles.

To do so, go into Management > Advanced Settings and search for xpackDashboardMode:roles. Then assign whatever role names you wish to use to flag a user for Dashboard Only mode.

It isn’t necessary for Dashboard Only mode roles to have any additional permissions, but it’s a convenient location to also place access rules to the custom Kibana index. If you wish to grant read only access to your custom Kibana index, it must have view_index_metadata permissions as well as read permissions. These role settings are available under Management > Security > Roles.