What it is

Sentinl is an open-source JavaScript application for the Elasticsearch ecosystem. It extends Siren Investigate and Kibana with alerting and reporting functionality under the Apache License, version 2. It targets Siren Investigate and Kibana 6.x through a native app interface.

The concrete problem it addresses is monitoring data series changes without a separate watcher implementation. Sentinl watches data around the clock by using standard queries, programmable validators, and configurable actions to notify users and generate reports. It describes itself as a free independent alternative to Watcher, and it adds scheduled reporting that creates PNG and PDF snapshots of dashboards or other websites.

Key capabilities

• It creates alerts from Elasticsearch data series changes by using standard queries and programmable validators.
• It provides configurable actions for notifications and report delivery.
• It generates visual snapshots of Kibana dashboards, or any other website, at a set date or condition and can deliver them as email attachments.
• It records event history for alerts and reports, which can be displayed in Kibana charts, widgets, or chart annotations.
• It offers a native app interface inside Siren Investigate and Kibana 6.x and can work alongside native watcher tools.

Who uses it and how

• Data and analytics teams use it inside Elasticsearch, Kibana, or Siren Investigate deployments to watch data series for changes.
• Administrators create alert workflows that combine standard queries, validators, and actions, then review event history in Kibana visualizations.
• Reporting users schedule dashboard snapshots for stakeholders, producing PNG or PDF attachments that can be sent by email.
• Self-hosted ELK stack administrators install it as a Kibana plugin, while Siren Investigate users may use the native version bundled with their distribution.

Getting started

Install Sentinl as a Kibana plugin from a release archive with /opt/kibana/bin/kibana-plugin install, or clone the repository, run npm install and gulp package --version, then install the generated local zip file; Siren users should use the native version bundled with their distribution.

When to use it — and when not to

It is suitable when an organization needs open-source alerting and scheduled reporting inside Elasticsearch, Kibana, or Siren Investigate and wants a free independent alternative to Watcher. A self-hoster must operate it as part of its deployment, maintain the underlying Elasticsearch data, and provide email delivery for report attachments. The project is 10 years old, states that it is production ready with thousands of deployments, seeks community help, lists 22 open issues, and does not show contributors, so maintenance should be evaluated.

/opt/kibana/bin/kibana-plugin install https://github.com/sirensolutions/sentinl/releases/download/tag-6.2.2/sentinl-v6.2.2.zip

git clone https://github.com/sirensolutions/sentinl
cd sentinl && npm install && gulp package --version=6.2.2
/opt/kibana/bin/kibana-plugin install file:///`pwd`/target/gulp/sentinl.zip

/opt/kibana/bin/kibana-plugin remove sentinl

This software is licensed under the Apache License, version 2 ("ALv2"), quoted below.
Copyright 2016, 2020 QXIP BV
Copyright 2016, 2019 Siren
Copyright 2015, Lorenzo Mangani ([email protected]), Rao Chenlin ([email protected])

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not
use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of
the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under
the License.