Monitoring the search queries sent to an Elasticsearch cluster is crucial for understanding user interaction and maintaining cluster health. By using tools like Packetbeat and integrating them with the Elastic Stack, including a dedicated monitoring cluster and a Kibana instance, administrators can track search traffic over HTTP and gain insights into query performance and usage patterns. This setup involves configuring Logstash to filter specific search-related data and storing it in a separate monitoring cluster to ensure accessible insights during production issues. The process allows for identifying frequently used queries, slow queries, and search patterns, which can inform resource planning and prevent outages. Although Packetbeat cannot inspect encrypted payloads, it still provides valuable data that can be visualized in Kibana to enhance understanding of cluster performance and optimize Elasticsearch usage.