[role="xpack"]
[[http-exporter]]
== HTTP Exporter

When you configure
an exporter in `elasticsearch.yml`, the default `local` exporter is disabled.

The `http` exporter uses the low-level {es} REST Client. This allows
the `http` exporter to send its data to any {es} cluster it can access
through the network.

The `http` exporter supports a number of settings that control how it
communicates over HTTP to remote clusters. In most cases, it is not
necessary to explicitly configure these settings. For detailed
descriptions, see {ref}/monitoring-settings.html[Monitoring Settings].

[source,yaml]
----------------------------------
xpack.monitoring.exporters:
  my_local: <1>
    type: local
  my_remote: <2>
    type: http
    host: [ "10.1.2.3", ... ] <3>
    auth: <4>
      username: my_username
      password: changeme
    connection:
      timeout: 6s
      read_timeout: 60s
    ssl: ... <5>
    proxy:
      base_path: /some/base/path <6>
    headers: <7>
      My-Proxy-Header: abc123
      My-Other-Thing: [ def456, ... ]
    index.name.time_format: YYYY-MM <8>

----------------------------------
<1> A `local` exporter defined explicitly whose arbitrary name is `my_local`.
<2> An `http` exporter defined whose arbitrary name is `my_remote`.
<3> `host` is a required setting for `http` exporters, which can take a few
    different forms as described in the table below.
<4> User authentication for those using {security} or some other
    form of user authentication protecting the cluster.
<5> See below for all TLS / SSL settings. If not supplied, the default
    node-level TLS / SSL settings will be used.
<6> Optional base path to prefix any outgoing request with in order to
    work with proxies.
<7> Arbitrary key/value pairs to define as headers to send with every request.
    The array-based key/value format sends one header per value.
<8> A mechanism for changing the date suffix used by default.