Disable the option of running setup --machine-learning on its own

CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc

@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ field. You can revert this change by configuring tags for the module and omittin
 - Adds Gsuite Drive support. {pull}19704[19704]
 - Adds Gsuite Groups support. {pull}19725[19725]
 - Move file metrics to dataset endpoint {pull}19977[19977]
+- Disable the option of running --machine-learning on its own. {pull}20241[20241]
 
 *Heartbeat*
 

filebeat/tests/system/test_ml.py

@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ def _run_ml_test(self, modules_flag):
 
         # Skipping dashboard loading to speed up tests
         cmd += ["-E", "setup.dashboards.enabled=false"]
-        cmd += ["setup", "--machine-learning"]
+        cmd += ["setup", "--machine-learning", "--dashboards"]
         if modules_flag:
             cmd += ["--modules=nginx"]
 

libbeat/cmd/setup.go

@@ -114,6 +114,13 @@ func genSetupCmd(settings instance.Settings, beatCreator beat.Creator) *cobra.Co
 				}
 			}
 
+			// XXX this is a workaround for installing index template patterns
+			// before enabling ML for modules
+			if s.MachineLearning && !s.Dashboard {
+				fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "--dashboards must be specified when choosing --machine-learning\n")
+				os.Exit(1)
+			}
+
 			if err = beat.Setup(settings, beatCreator, s); err != nil {
 				os.Exit(1)
 			}

libbeat/ml-importer/importer.go

@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ func SetupModule(kibanaClient MLSetupper, module, prefix string) error {
 	prefixPayload := fmt.Sprintf("{\"prefix\": \"%s\"}", prefix)
 	status, response, err := kibanaClient.Request("POST", setupURL, nil, nil, strings.NewReader(prefixPayload))
 	if status != 200 {
-		return errors.Errorf("cannot set up ML with prefix: %s", prefix)
+		return errors.Errorf("cannot set up ML with prefix: %s, response: %s", prefix, string(response))
 	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return err