Content connectors

Elastic's content connectors allow you to extract, transform, index, and sync data from third-party applications including Github, Jira, Teams, Google Drive, Slack, email, and more (view all connectors).

Content connectors are available in two deployment options: you can run them yourself or let Elastic run them within your managed deployment on Elastic Cloud.

Elastic managed connectors are deployed within your managed Elastic environment. These connectors:

• Require no infrastructure management
• Offer simplified setup and maintenance
• Do not support customization
• Only send data to the serverless/hosted deployment they're deployed within

Self-managed connectors run on your own infrastructure, independent of where your Elasticsearch instance is running. These connectors:

• Require you to deploy the connector service (Python) on your infrastructure
• Can send data to any Elasticsearch instance (managed or self-managed)
• Can be customized

To learn about setup for self-managed connectors, refer to Self-managed connectors. To set up an Elastic managed connector:

1. Use the global search field to find "Content connectors".
2. Click New Connector.
3. Under Connector, select your desired data source.
4. Under Setup, select your deployment method.
5. Under Configure index & API key, click Generate configuration. After a few seconds, this will create a new connector and a new index for its data, and display their names and IDs. You can click their names to view details about each.
6. Click Next to continue to the Configuration page. This is where you can select details related to your specific data source. For more information about configuring your selected data source, follow the link on the left to the Connector reference.
7. When configuration is complete, click Next. The Finish up page appears. Here you can set up recurring connector syncs, run a manual sync, or use queries and dev tools to interact with your data. Each sync updates the data in the connector's Elasticsearch index. You can also manage the connector.

To manage an existing connector:

1. Use the global search field to find "Content connectors".
2. Click the connector you want to manage to open its settings page, which has six tabs:

• Overview: View general information such as the connector's name, ID, status, pipeline, and content sync history. Manage the connector's pipeline and attached index.
• Documents: View data from the connector.
• Mappings: Update index mappings for the connector's data.
• Sync rules: Manage basic and advanced sync rules to control which documents are synced from your third-party data source.
• Scheduling: Define when data from this connector gets synced, and set up document level security. A Full content sync deletes existing data in your index before fetching from your data source again. An Incremental content sync fetches updated data only, without deleting existing data.
• Configuration: Edit the connector's data source-specific configuration.