Getting Started with ELK

By
Asawari Samant

Are you a new user looking for easy-to-use examples to get started with the ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana)? Or perhaps you're a not-so-new user looking for starter code to ingest standard logs (e.g., Nginx access logs, Twitter feed, etc.) and don't want to write a Logstash config file from scratch.

We are thrilled to announce a new and improved examples repo in GitHub where we will share easy-to-use examples for getting started with Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana, i.e. the ELK stack.

So, what's in an example?

The objective of each example is simple:  To give you everything you need to go from raw data to an insightful (and pretty) Kibana dashboard in a few easy steps. While the exact contents of each example may vary slightly, in general, each will include sample data (or instructions to obtain the data), a Logstash config file for ingest, custom Elasticsearch mapping/template files, and Kibana files to load pre-built dashboards. And, of course, detailed instructions on how to download and run the example.  

We have intentionally kept the structure and content simple and crisp to optimize the download-and-play experience. That said, if you have suggestions on how we can improve these further, we are eager to listen via GitHub issue, email or Twitter.

GettingStartedELK_NYC Traffic Data.png


Contributing

At Elastic, we are all about sharing with — and learning from — our vibrant user community. Every day we are amazed by the new and fascinating ways in which our users are pushing the boundaries with our products. We would love to see that awesomeness shared in this example repo. If you have an example (however simple or complex) to share, simply post an issue in the GitHub repo with a short description of your example and we will work with you to package it and make it available to others to enjoy. The detailed contribution process is laid out in the repo ReadMe.

Don't have an example, but have an idea or suggestion for the demos team at Elastic? We are all ears! Once again, open a GitHub issue to let us know. While we may not be able to get to all of them, we promise to do our best.

Give it a try!

We hope you enjoy this new project, and we look forward to seeing your awesome contributions in the repo soon!