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Connect Edge Nodes to Leader Through Cribl Outpost

Simplify Node-to-Leader communication with Cribl Outpost.

Preview Feature
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Cribl Outpost simplifies management of deployments by acting as a relay between individual Edge Nodes and the Leader Node.

Once you establish an Outpost and configure it to accept traffic from Edge Nodes, control plane communication between those Nodes and the Leader will pass through the Outpost.

Cribl Outpost is ideal in situations where you can’t establish direct communication between Edge Nodes and the Leader, for example due to restrictions in opening up firewall ports.

Using an Outpost limits the need to set up third-party proxies and simplifies maintenance by reducing the complexity of firewall setups.

Cribl Outpost requires an Enterprise plan or Enterprise license. For details, see Pricing.

If you connect an Outpost to a Leader that does not have a proper plan or license, the Outpost node will close the listener for communication incoming from Edge Nodes, but will be shown as healthy on the Leader.

How Outpost Works
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An Outpost is a special type of Node that rests between Edge Nodes and the Leader.

Overview of how Outpost connects Leader with Edge Nodes
Overview of how Outpost connects Leader with Edge Nodes

For an individual Edge Node, an Outpost is indistinguishable from the Leader: Nodes communicate with the Outpost the same way they would with a Leader, using the same configuration (for example, using the URL defined in the CRIBL_DIST_LEADER_URL environment variable or in instance.yml).

Instead of connecting directly to multiple Nodes (possibly thousands), the Leader maintains those connections with one Outpost only. This means you only need to configure communication lines such as firewall exceptions once per Outpost.