[APM] "Start trial" on ECK silently does nothing when license management UI is disabled

[pebrc]

Kibana version:
7.7
Elasticsearch version:
7.7
Server OS version:
Official Docker images
Browser version:
Firefox 76
Browser OS version:
macOS
Original install method (e.g. download page, yum, from source, etc.):
ECK/official Docker images
Describe the bug:
ECK runs Kibana with the following setting in place which turns the license management UI off:

xpack.license_management.ui.enabled: false

This is because licenses are centrally managed by ECK and installing individual licenses on a per cluster/Kibana basis is not a supported use case. See our licensing docs

However a user reported that the APM Service Map UI shows a "Start Trial" prompt, despite the license UI being disabled. Clicking on said "Start Trial" button just takes you to the Kibana home page. (I was initially mistakenly assuming that a trial had been started in the background once a user clicked the button but that is not the case)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start a Kibana with xpack.license_management.ui.enabled: false (ECK does that by default as of 7.6)
2. Go to APM -> Service Map
3. Click "Start trial"

Expected behavior:

I understand that this button is just a redirect to the license management UI but the user experience is not great if the license UI is disabled. I wonder if we can improve this by:

• either not showing the start trial UI
• or making the redirect target configurable (to be able to redirect to ECK docs for example)
• or at least handling the case where the redirect points into nowhere better by giving the user some kind of feedback about what just happened

Screenshots (if relevant):

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/apm-ui (Team:apm)

[sorenlouv]

ECK does that by default as of 7.6

Interesting.

@formgeist How do you think we should handle this? We still need to block access to service maps if the user doesn't have the necessary license. I'm mostly in favor of either removing the "Start Trial" button entirely or having it link to a configurable target.

or making the redirect target configurable (to be able to redirect to ECK docs for example)

@pebrc Does this config option already exist? if not, I'd prefer not adding it to APM (since other solutions might need it as well). Where do you think this config should live?

[pebrc]

Does this config option already exist?

I am not aware of it. It was just an idea. Maybe something like xpack.license_management.url ?

[formgeist]

How do you think we should handle this? We still need to block access to service maps if the user doesn't have the necessary license. I'm mostly in favor of either removing the "Start Trial" button entirely or having it link to a configurable target.

We'd need to change the title of the message as well. Instead of only focusing on the button link, why not make the entire message ECK-specific based on configuration? In this way we can write a good license message (for all roadblocked features) and link to the docs?

[sorenlouv]

Instead of only focusing on the button link, why not make the entire message ECK-specific based on configuration

Sounds like a better approach 👍 If we know the link to the docs we might not have to make it configurable (will make things simpler)

[pebrc]

One thing to note is that ECK is not the only orchestrator disabling the license UI (ECE / Cloud do that as well afaik).

Sounds like a better approach 👍 If we know the link to the docs we might not have to make it configurable (will make things simpler)

The link I was thinking of is https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-on-k8s/1.1/k8s-licensing.html but hard-coding this in makes me feel somewhat uneasy. Also this link is version specific so it would depend on the version of ECK orchestrating this particular instance of Kibana.

Finally it is worth noting that the current message talks about a Platinum license, but ECK uses only Enterprise licenses on newer versions of the Elastic stack (> 7.6.0)

cc @shubhaat

[sorenlouv]

Finally it is worth noting that the current message talks about a Platinum license, but ECK uses only Enterprise licenses on newer versions of the Elastic stack (> 7.6.0)

God to know. The intention is to replace the entire message for ECK - not just the link.

this link is version specific so it would depend on the version of ECK orchestrating this particular instance of Kibana

I think the best solution would be for ECK to make the version available as an env value or similar for Kibana to pick up.
Let's say we introduce xpack.license_management.url. Would ECK populate that with the correct url?

[botelastic]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[sorenlouv]

Closing due to inactivity

[pebrc]

@sqren Did you close this because you were waiting on a response from the ECK team? If so my apologies for missing the last question. Can we reopen?

I think the best solution would be for ECK to make the version available as an env value or similar for Kibana to pick up.
Let's say we introduce xpack.license_management.url. Would ECK populate that with the correct url?

I think that would work.

BTW I just retested this and the issue is still the same on 7.15

[sorenlouv]

Yeah. I closed it because it seemed like it was mostly out of our control, and with the lack of activity or user requests in general I figured it wouldn't get high priority any time soon.

[sorenlouv]

@pebrc Following up on this: how do other UI applications handle this? I assume APM is not the only app to want to link to license management.

[pebrc]

Following up on this: how do other UI applications handle this? I assume APM is not the only app to want to link to license management.

I am afraid I am not familiar enough with the Kibana code base to answer that question. The only other place where we had a similar issue was in Enterprise Search / Workplace Search but since 7.8 this functionality is included in Basic.

[chenlujjj]

Met this problem after deploy the eck in our own k8s cluster. Feel confused how to start the trial

[smith]

Since APM is linking to the license management page, I would expect the license management page to handle this (cc @elastic/kibana-management), though when the plugin UI is disabled I suppose that's difficult.

From the issue description:

either not showing the start trial UI

That might be the best option

or making the redirect target configurable (to be able to redirect to ECK docs for example)

I'd prefer not adding additional configuration around this if possible.

or at least handling the case where the redirect points into nowhere better by giving the user some kind of feedback about what just happened

Yes in this case I think @elastic/kibana-management might be the best ones to handle this.

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/obs-ux-infra_services-team (Team:obs-ux-infra_services)

[yuliacech]

Is this issue still reproducible in APM? Because I remember @elastic/kibana-management team did an audit of license management links used in Kibana and opened this issue for APM, from what I can see it was fixed via #158278

[smith]

@yuliacech yes according to that this should have been fixed in 8.9. Closing. Please reopen if this is still an issue.