work in progress with deployments

Author: eedugon

deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/add-custom-bundles-plugins.md

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 ---
+navigation_title: Configure plugins and extensions
 applies_to:
   deployment:
     ece:

deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/add-plugins.md

@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 ---
+applies_to:
+  deployment:
+    ece: all
 mapped_pages:
   - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-enterprise/current/ece-advanced-configuration.html
 ---

deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/advanced-cluster-configuration.md

@@ -1,6 +1,69 @@
 ---
+navigation_title: Configure
+applies_to:
+  deployment:
+    ece: all
 mapped_pages:
   - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-enterprise/current/ece-change-deployment.html
 ---
 
-# Configure deployment
+# Configure your deployment [ece-change-deployment]
+
+In this section you will learn the different ways and possibilities to change your deployment configuration. There are several reasons why you might want to change the configuration of a deployment:
+
+* To increase or decrease deployment capacity by changing the amount of reserved memory and storage.
+* To enable [autoscaling](../../../deploy-manage/autoscaling.md) so that available resources for certain deployment components adjust automatically as the demands on them change.
+* To enable high availability by adjusting the number of availability zones that your deployment runs in.
+* To add, remove, or update {{es}} or {{kib}} configuration settings.
+* To upgrade to new versions of Elasticsearch. You can upgrade from one major version to another, such as from 7.17 to 8.0, or from one minor version to another, such as 8.9.0 to 8.9.2. You can’t downgrade versions.
+* To update Elasticsearch clusters and Kibana after an updated Elastic Stack pack for a particular version has been added to your Elastic Cloud Enterprise installation.
+* To change what plugins are available on your deployment.
+
+
+You can perform the following configuration changes to your deployments:
+
+* [](./customize-deployment.md): Learn how to change your deployment architecture, configure resources, autoscaling, data tiers, and other {{stack}} components, from the Edit UI.
+* [](./edit-stack-settings.md): Add, remove, or update {{es}} or {{kib}} YML configuration settings.
+* [](./resize-deployment.md): Scale 
+* [](./add-plugins.md): Enable or disable plugins from the list of available plugins.
+* [](./add-custom-bundles-plugins.md): Add custom plugins or configuration files to your {{es}} instances.
+* [](./resource-overrides.md): In certain use cases, extend the cluster capacity temporary.
+* [](./advanced-cluster-configuration.md): ...
+* 
+
+From the deployment menu you can also access to the configuration of the following features:
+
+* Logs and metrics (Stack monitoring).
+* Snapshots
+* Secure settings
+
+## Configuration use cases
+
+There are several reasons why you might want to change the configuration of a deployment:
+
+* To increase or decrease deployment capacity by changing the amount of reserved memory and storage.
+* To enable [autoscaling](../../../deploy-manage/autoscaling.md) so that available resources for certain deployment components adjust automatically as the demands on them change.
+* To enable high availability by adjusting the number of availability zones that your deployment runs in.
+* To add, remove, or update {{es}} or {{kib}} configuration settings.
+* To upgrade to new versions of Elasticsearch. You can upgrade from one major version to another, such as from 7.17 to 8.0, or from one minor version to another, such as 8.9.0 to 8.9.2. You can’t downgrade versions.
+* To update Elasticsearch clusters and Kibana after an updated Elastic Stack pack for a particular version has been added to your Elastic Cloud Enterprise installation.
+* To change what plugins are available on your deployment.
+
+## Applying changes
+
+For single availability zone deployments, there is downtime to portions of your cluster when changes are applied. For HA deployments and with the exception of major version upgrades, we can perform all these changes without interrupting your deployment. During the application of these changes, you can continue to search and index.
+
+Many changes can also be done in bulk: in one action, you can add more memory and storage, upgrade minor versions, adjust the number of plugins and adjust fault tolerance by changing the number of availability zones. Elastic Cloud Enterprise performs all of these changes with a grow-and-shrink operation, making an Elasticsearch cluster and other instances with the new configuration join the existing deployment. After re-joining, updated nodes recover their indexes and start handling requests. When all updated new nodes are ready, the old nodes that were replaced are removed. If you do a major version upgrade, you cannot change the cluster configuration at the same time. Perform these configuration changes separately.
+
+::::{tip}
+When you scale up a deployment, existing data may be migrated to new nodes. For clusters containing large amounts of data, this migration can take some time, especially if your deployment is under a heavy workload. (Is your deployment under a heavy load? You might need to [stop routing requests](../../../deploy-manage/maintenance/ece/deployments-maintenance.md) first.)
+::::
+
+TBD - EDU
+
+This section describes how to configure and customize your deployments and the different features available for your deployments, such as:
+
+* Stack settings: 
+* Plugins and extensions: 
+* Custom bundles and plugins
+* 

deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/configure-deployment.md

@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ mapped_pages:
 
 This section explains how to connect client applications to an {{es}} deployment running on ECE. You can use the [endpoint URL](#ece-connect-endpoint) available in the deployment UI, or the [Cloud ID](#ece-cloud-id) for a simplified setup with compatible clients such as Beats and Logstash.
 
-{{ece}} clusters running on ECE only support connections over **HTTP/HTTPS** through the RESTful API. Direct connections to the transport port are not supported.
+% TBD - not sure if this is totally accurate
+% {{ece}} clusters running on ECE only support connections over **HTTP/HTTPS** through the RESTful API. Direct connections to the transport port are not supported.
 
 To successfully connect to a deployment, you need both the connection details and valid authentication credentials for an authorized user in the target deployment. For more details on authentication and authorization mechanisms in ECE, refer to [Users and roles](../../users-roles.md#orchestrator-level).
 

deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/connect-elasticsearch.md

@@ -8,51 +8,71 @@ mapped_urls:
 
 # Create a deployment
 
-An ECE deployment is a fully managed Elastic Stack environment running on {{ece}}. It includes {{es}}, {{kib}}, and optional features like Machine Learning, or an Integrations (Fleet & APM) Server.
+An ECE deployment is a fully managed Elastic Stack environment running on {{ece}}. It includes {{es}}, {{kib}}, and optional features like Machine Learning or an Integrations (Fleet & APM) Server.
 
 Each deployment is based on a [deployment template](./deployment-templates.md), which defines its resources, default topology, scaling policies, and available features. Deployments can be customized based on workload requirements, including autoscaling, snapshot settings, and security configurations.
 
 To create a deployment in ECE:
 
 1. From the Cloud UI, select **Create deployment**.
 
+    You can quickly create a deployment by setting the basic parameters shown in the UI. If you need more control, select **Advanced settings** to customize the deployment parameters, including autoscaling, storage, memory, data tiers, and additional Elastic Stack components. Refer to [](./customize-deployment.md) for more information.
+
     :::{image} ../../../images/cloud-enterprise-ece-create-deployment.png
     :alt: Create a deployment
     :::
 
-    On the **Create deployment** page, you can edit the basic settings or adjust advanced configurations. **Advanced settings** allow you to modify deployment parameters defined by the selected template, such as autoscaling, storage, memory, data tiers, and additional {{stack}} components.
-
 2. Set a name for your deployment.
 
 3. Select a deployment template.
 
-::::{tip}
-* Refer to [](./deployment-templates.md) for more information about deployment templates, including descriptions of the default system templates.
-* If the system templates do not meet your requirements, you can [modify them](./ece-configuring-ece-configure-system-templates.md) or [create your own custom templates](../../../deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/ece-configuring-ece-create-templates.md).
-::::
+    ::::{tip}
+    * For a description of the available system templates, refer to [](./deployment-templates.md).
+    * If the system templates do not meet your requirements, you can [modify them](./ece-configuring-ece-configure-system-templates.md) or [create your own custom templates](../../../deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/ece-configuring-ece-create-templates.md).
+    ::::
 
 4. Choose your {{stack}} version. To manage available versions, refer to [](./manage-elastic-stack-versions.md).
 
-5. Optionally, [use snapshots](../../tools/snapshot-and-restore/cloud-enterprise.md) to back up your data or [restore data from another deployment](../../tools/snapshot-and-restore/ece-restore-across-clusters.md).
+5. Optionally, [use snapshots](../../tools/snapshot-and-restore/cloud-enterprise.md) to back up your data, or [restore data from another deployment](../../tools/snapshot-and-restore/ece-restore-across-clusters.md).
 
-::::{tip}
-    Restoring a snapshot can help with major version upgrades by creating a separate, non-production deployment where you can test, for example. Or, make life easier for your developers by providing them with a development environment that is populated with real data.
-::::
+    ::::{tip}
+        Restoring a snapshot can help with major version upgrades by creating a separate, non-production deployment where you can test, for example. Or, make life easier for your developers by providing them with a development environment that is populated with real data.
+    ::::
 
-6. Select **Advanced settings**, to configure your deployment for [autoscaling](../../autoscaling/ece-autoscaling.md), storage, memory, and data tiers. Check [Customize your deployment](../../../deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/customize-deployment.md) for more details.
+6. Select **Advanced settings** if you want to configure [autoscaling](../../autoscaling/ece-autoscaling.md), adjust storage, memory, or customize data tiers. Refer to [Customize your deployment](../../../deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/customize-deployment.md) for more details on the available options.
 
 7. Select **Create deployment**. It takes a few minutes before your deployment gets created.
 
-   While waiting, you are prompted to save the admin credentials for your deployment which provides you with superuser access to Elasticsearch. Write down the password for the `elastic` user and keep it somewhere safe. These credentials also help you [add data using Kibana](../../../manage-data/ingest.md). If you need to refresh these credentials, you can [reset the password](../../../deploy-manage/users-roles/cluster-or-deployment-auth/manage-elastic-user-cloud.md).
+    ::::{tip}
+    While waiting, you will be prompted to save the admin credentials for your deployment, which grant superuser access to Elasticsearch. Write down the password for the `elastic` user and keep it somewhere safe. These credentials also help you [add data using Kibana](../../../manage-data/ingest.md). If you need to refresh these credentials, you can [reset the password](../../../deploy-manage/users-roles/cluster-or-deployment-auth/manage-elastic-user-cloud.md) at any time.
+    ::::
 
 8. Once the deployment is ready, select **Continue** to open the deployment’s main page.
 
 After a deployment is spun up, you can scale the size and add other features; however, the instance configuration and computing ratios cannot be changed. If you need to change an existing deployment to another template, we recommend [migrating your data](../../../manage-data/migrate.md).
 
 ## Next steps
 
-After creating your deployment, you may want to:
+% TBD, we have to refine a bit this section
+
+That’s it! Now that you are up and running, you may want to:
 
-* [Access {{kib}}](./access-kibana.md)
+* [Start exploring with {{kib}}](./access-kibana.md), our open-source visualization tool. If you’re not familiar with adding data, yet, {{kib}} can show you how to index your data into {{es}}.
 * [Connect your applications to {{es}}](./connect-elasticsearch.md) to start [ingesting data](../../../manage-data/ingest.md)
-* Learn how to configure and [manage your deployment](./working-with-deployments.md)
+* Learn how to configure and [manage your deployment](./working-with-deployments.md)
+
+% From Shaina in Cloud, TBD.
+
+## Preparing a deployment for production [ec-prepare-production]
+
+To make sure you’re all set for production, consider the following actions:
+
+* [Plan for your expected workloads](/deploy-manage/production-guidance/pl) and consider how many availability zones you’ll need.
+* [Create a deployment](/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/create-an-elastic-cloud-hosted-deployment.md) on the region you need and with a hardware profile that matches your use case.
+* [Change your configuration](/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/ec-customize-deployment-components.md) by turning on autoscaling, adding high availability, or adjusting components of the Elastic Stack.
+* [Add extensions and plugins](/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/add-plugins-extensions.md) to use Elastic supported extensions or add your own custom dictionaries and scripts.
+* [Edit settings and defaults](/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/edit-stack-settings.md) to fine tune the performance of specific features.
+* [Manage your deployment](/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/manage-deployments.md) as a whole to restart, upgrade, stop routing, or delete.
+* [Set up monitoring](/deploy-manage/monitor/stack-monitoring/elastic-cloud-stack-monitoring.md) to learn how to configure your deployments for observability, which includes metric and log collection, troubleshooting views, and cluster alerts to automate performance monitoring.
+
+

deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/create-deployment.md

@@ -1,40 +1,79 @@
 ---
+navigation_title: Customize deployment components
 applies_to:
   deployment:
     ece: all
 mapped_pages:
   - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud-enterprise/current/ece-customize-deployment.html
 ---
 
+% Background and scope note: this document is about the Deployment -> Edit page, how ECE applies changes, and links to other configurable features
+
 # Customize your deployment [ece-customize-deployment]
 
-You can either customize a new deployment, or customize an existing one. On the **Create a deployment** page, select **Edit settings** to change the cloud provider, region, hardware profile, and stack version; or select **Advanced settings** for more complex configuration settings.
+% TBD, refine this intro after checking the UI
+In ECE, you can customize your deployment at any time by selecting **Edit** from the deployment page. This allows you to modify the deployment architecture, adjust configuration settings, availability zones, resources, and enable or disable data tiers.
+
+::::{note}
+The configurable components and allowed values available on the Edit page depend on the [deployment template](./deployment-templates.md) and [instance configurations](./ece-configuring-ece-instance-configurations-default.md) associated with the deployment.
+::::
+
+To customize your deployment:
+
+1. [Log into the Cloud UI](./log-into-cloud-ui.md).
+2. On the **Deployments** page, select your deployment.
 
-On the **Advanced settings** page, you can change the following settings:
+    Narrow the list by name, ID, or choose from several other [filters](./search-filter-deployments.md). To further define the list, use a combination of filters.
+
+3. From your deployment menu, go to the **Edit** page.
+
+## Editing deployment
+
+In the deployment edit page, you can change the following settings:
 
 * Enable [autoscaling](../../autoscaling.md) so that the available resources adjust automatically as demands on the deployment change.
-* If you don’t want to autoscale your deployment, you can manually increase or decrease capacity by adjusting the size of hot, warm, cold, and frozen [data tiers](../../../manage-data/lifecycle/data-tiers.md) nodes. For example, you might want to add warm tier nodes if you have time series data that is accessed less-frequently and rarely needs to be updated. Alternatively, you might need cold tier nodes if you have time series data that is accessed occasionally and not normally updated.
+
+* If you don’t want to autoscale your deployment, you can manually increase or decrease capacity by adjusting the size of hot, warm, cold, and frozen [data tiers](../../../manage-data/lifecycle/data-tiers.md) nodes. For example, you might want to add warm or cold tier nodes if you have time series data that is accessed less-frequently and rarely needs to be updated.
 
     * From the **Size per zone** drop-down menu, select what best fits your requirements.
 
         :::{image} ../../../images/cloud-enterprise-ec-customize-deployment2.png
         :alt: Customize hot data and content tier nodes
         :::
 
-        Tiers increase in size before they increase the number of nodes. Based on the size that you select, the number of nodes is calculated for you automatically. Each node can be scaled up to 58GB RAM for Azure or 64GB RAM for GCP and AWS. The **Architecture** summary displays the total number of nodes per zone, where each circle color represents a different node type.
+        Based on the size you select for a tier, ECE automatically calculates the required number of nodes. Before adding additional nodes, the system scales up existing nodes to the maximum size allowed by their instance configuration, as defined in the deployment template. The maximum size for an {{es}} instance using the default templates typically ranges between 58GB and 64GB RAM.
+        
+        The **Architecture** summary displays the total number of nodes per zone, where each circle color represents a different node type:
 
         :::{image} ../../../images/cloud-enterprise-ec-number-of-nodes.png
         :alt: Number of nodes per deployment size
         :::
 
     * Adjust the number of **Availability zones** to increase fault tolerance for the deployment.
 
-* Open **Edit user settings**  to change the  YML configuration file to further customize how you run {{es}}.
+* Select **Edit user settings** to add configuration settings to the YML file of any component and further customize its behavior.
 
-For more information, refer to [Editing your user settings](edit-stack-settings.md).
+  For more information, refer to [](edit-stack-settings.md).
 
 * Enable specific {{es}} plugins which are not enabled by default.
 * Enable additional features, such as Machine Learning or coordinating nodes.
 * Set specific configuration parameters for your {{es}} nodes or {{kib}} instances.
 
-That’s it! Now that you are up and running, [start exploring with {{kib}}](create-deployment.md), our open-source visualization tool. If you’re not familiar with adding data, yet, {{kib}} can show you how to index your data into {{es}}.
+## Applying changes
+
+When clicking on **Save changes** in the Edit deployment page
+
+% TBD, explain a bit the different type of plans
+
+* Select the method to apply changes
+  * Rolling inline
+  * Grow and shrink
+
+## Other configuration changes
+
+The following configuration settings are not available within the Edit deployment page:
+
+* Logs and Metrics (monitoring)
+* Secure settings (keystore settings)
+* Snapshots
+