[DOCS] Connect via endpoint URL (fix Cloud ID mismatch)

[charlotte-hoblik]

Same direction as elastic/docs-content#5414: prefer the Elasticsearch endpoint URL in connection examples so steps match the Cloud UI, curl, and other client docs.

This addresses elastic/docs-content#2431 :

• text pointed at the endpoint while the sample still used CLOUD_ID.
• Connecting page now treats endpoint + API key as default and documents Cloud ID only as an optional path for hosted Elastic Cloud.

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• docs/reference/connecting.md
• docs/reference/getting-started.md

[swallez]

Left a comment.

And a question that is probably more for @flobernd: there no mention of node sniffing in the node pool section. Should we add it, or is it documented elsewhere (and then should be linked here)?

[swallez]

to cluster nodes should be to the deployment URL as all nodes are hidden behind Elastic Cloud's proxy.

We can also remove HTTP since it's HTTPS only. I would actually remove the entire (including ... compression) snippet as the goal of defaults is to simplify the user's life and not have them care about it!

[flobernd]

The client resolves the Cloud ID to cluster nodes and applies defaults suited to Elastic Cloud (including HTTPS and HTTP compression)

This is actually not true 😅 These optimizations only get applied when using the Cloud ID (CloudNodePool in the client).

The above ElasticsearchClientSettings constructor overload using an url will resolve to the SingleNodePool - which does not apply any cloud specific parameters.

The urls are not a reliable inidicator (since custom domains are often used) and therefore not used to change the behavior. The .NET client requires the user to express explicit intent:

var pool = new CloudNodePool(new Uri("<ELASTICSEARCH_ENDPOINT>"), new ApiKey("<API_KEY>"));
var settings = new ElasticsearchClientSettings(pool);

[flobernd]

The node sniffing implementations live in Elastic.Transport (elastic/elastic-transport-net) and I'm afraid this is only documented in code, since we still did not release a documentation for the transport library (which technicall is still in alpha (0.x version)).

The user has to express explicit intent here as well by using either SniffingNodePool or StickySniffingNodePool.

  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┬─────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ Pool                                      │ Pin │ Sniff (reseed)                                            │ MaxRetries │ Selection                                 │
  │                                           │ gs  │                                                           │            │                                           │
  ├───────────────────────────────────────────┼─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │ SingleNodePool                            │ off │ off (Reseed no-op)                                        │ 0          │ the single node                           │
  │ CloudNodePool (extends SingleNodePool)    │ off │ off (Reseed no-op)                                        │ 0          │ the cloud endpoint                        │
  │ StaticNodePool                            │ on  │ off (Reseed no-op)                                        │ nodes.Coun │ round-robin via global cursor (with       │
  │                                           │     │                                                           │ t          │ dead/alive tracking)                      │
  │                                           │     │                                                           │ - 1        │                                           │
  │ SniffingNodePool (extends StaticNodePool) │ on  │ on (writes new node list under a ReaderWriterLockSlim)    │ nodes.Coun │ round-robin via global cursor over the    │
  │                                           │     │                                                           │ t          │ sniffed list                              │
  │                                           │     │                                                           │ - 1        │                                           │
  │ StickyNodePool (extends StaticNodePool,   │ on  │ off (Reseed overridden as no-op)                          │ nodes.Coun │ always starts at cursor 0, sticks to the  │
  │ sealed)                                   │     │                                                           │ t          │ first alive node                          │
  │                                           │     │                                                           │ - 1        │                                           │
  │ StickySniffingNodePool (extends           │ on  │ on (with optional Func<Node, float> nodeScorer; default   │ nodes.Coun │ always starts at cursor 0, sticks to the  │
  │ SniffingNodePool, sealed)                 │     │ scorer returns 0f)                                        │ t          │ first alive node                          │
  │                                           │     │                                                           │ - 1        │                                           │
  └───────────────────────────────────────────┴─────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────┘

[flobernd]

@charlotte-hoblik Hey 👋 are you going to iterate on this? Feel free to contact me, if anything needs clarification.

[charlotte-hoblik]

Thanks @swallez and @flobernd for the review and sorry for the slow follow-up on my side.

@flobernd especially: I really appreciate how much time you put into this. The pool behavior explanation and the sniffing context were a huge help. That kind of research makes the docs and the author better. Thank you.

I’ve updated connecting.md to reflect your feedback without turning the page into a transport deep-dive:

• Cloud ID: copy now talks about the deployment endpoint behind Elastic Cloud’s proxy
• Main cloud example: still endpoint URL + API key as the default path, aligned with the console and other clients.
• Sniffing: a short pointer to Elastic.Transport / the elastic-transport-net repo so we answer @swallez’s question without dropping the whole pool matrix in.

If you’d rather keep CloudNodePool called out explicitly for advanced readers, I’m happy to add a single sentence.

Thanks again—please take another look when you can.

[flobernd]

Thank you! Just one /nit 🙂