---
title: Parse AWS VPC Flow Log
description: The parse_aws_vpc_flow_log processor decodes AWS VPC Flow log messages. The following example configuration decodes the message field using the default...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/fleet/processor-parse-aws-vpc-flow-log
products:
  - Elastic Agent
  - Fleet
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
---

# Parse AWS VPC Flow Log
The `parse_aws_vpc_flow_log` processor decodes AWS VPC Flow log messages.

## Example

The following example configuration decodes the `message` field using the default version 2 VPC flow log format.
```yaml
processors:
  - parse_aws_vpc_flow_log:
      format: version account-id interface-id srcaddr dstaddr srcport dstport protocol packets bytes start end action log-status
      field: message
```


## Configuration settings

<note>
  Elastic Agent processors execute *before* ingest pipelines, which means that your processor configurations cannot refer to fields that are created by ingest pipelines or Logstash. For more limitations, refer to [What are some limitations of using processors?](/docs/reference/fleet/agent-processors#limitations)
</note>


| Name             | Required | Default       | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
|------------------|----------|---------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `field`          | No       | `message`     | Source field containing the VPC flow log message.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| `target_field`   | No       | `aws.vpcflow` | Target field for the VPC flow log object. This applies only to the original VPC flow log fields. ECS fields are written to the standard location.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| `format`         | Yes      |               | VPC flow log format. This supports VPC flow log fields from versions 2 through 5. It will accept a string or a list of strings. Each format must have a unique number of fields to enable matching it to a flow log message.                                                                                                                                        |
| `mode`           | No       | `ecs`         | Controls which fields are generated. The available options are:* `original`: generates the fields specified in the format string.* `ecs`: maps the original fields to ECS and removes the original fields that are mapped to ECS.* `ecs_and_original`: maps the original fields to ECS and retains all the original fields.To learn more, refer to [Modes](#modes). |
| `ignore_missing` | No       | false         | Whether to ignore a missing source field.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| `ignore_failure` | No       | false         | Whether to ignore failures while parsing and transforming the flow log message.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| `id`             | No       |               | Instance ID for debugging purposes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |


## Modes

This section provides more information about available modes.

### Original

This mode returns the same fields found in the `format` string. It will drop any fields whose value is a dash (`-`). It converts the strings into the appropriate data types. These are the known field names and their data types.
<note>
  The AWS VPC flow field names use underscores instead of dashes within Elastic Agent. You may configure the `format` using field names that contain either.
</note>


| VPC Flow Log Field  | Data Type |     |
|---------------------|-----------|-----|
| account_id          | string    |     |
| action              | string    |     |
| az_id               | string    |     |
| bytes               | long      |     |
| dstaddr             | ip        |     |
| dstport             | integer   |     |
| end                 | timestamp |     |
| flow_direction      | string    |     |
| instance_id         | string    |     |
| interface_id        | string    |     |
| log_status          | string    |     |
| packets             | long      |     |
| pkt_dst_aws_service | string    |     |
| pkt_dstaddr         | ip        |     |
| pkt_src_aws_service | string    |     |
| pkt_srcaddr         | ip        |     |
| protocol            | integer   |     |
| region              | string    |     |
| srcaddr             | ip        |     |
| srcport             | integer   |     |
| start               | timestamp |     |
| sublocation_id      | string    |     |
| sublocation_type    | string    |     |
| subnet_id           | string    |     |
| tcp_flags           | integer   |     |
| tcp_flags_array*    | integer   |     |
| traffic_path        | integer   |     |
| type                | string    |     |
| version             | integer   |     |
| vpc_id              | string    |     |


### ECS

This mode maps the original VPC flow log fields into their associated Elastic Common Schema (ECS) fields. It removes the original fields that were mapped to ECS to reduced duplication. These are the field associations. There may be some transformations applied to derive the ECS field.

| VPC Flow Log Field | ECS Field               |     |
|--------------------|-------------------------|-----|
| account_id         | cloud.account.id        |     |
| action             | event.outcome           |     |
| action             | event.action            |     |
| action             | event.type              |     |
| az_id              | cloud.availability_zone |     |
| bytes              | network.bytes           |     |
| bytes              | source.bytes            |     |
| dstaddr            | destination.address     |     |
| dstaddr            | destination.ip          |     |
| dstport            | destination.port        |     |
| end                | @timestamp              |     |
| end                | event.end               |     |
| flow_direction     | network.direction       |     |
| instance_id        | cloud.instance.id       |     |
| packets            | network.packets         |     |
| packets            | source.packets          |     |
| protocol           | network.iana_number     |     |
| protocol           | network.transport       |     |
| region             | cloud.region            |     |
| srcaddr            | network.type            |     |
| srcaddr            | source.address          |     |
| srcaddr            | source.ip               |     |
| srcport            | source.port             |     |
| start              | event.start             |     |


### ECS and Original

This mode maps the fields into ECS and retains all the original fields. Below is an example document produced using `ecs_and_original` mode.
```json
{
  "@timestamp": "2021-03-26T03:29:09Z",
  "aws": {
    "vpcflow": {
      "account_id": "64111117617",
      "action": "REJECT",
      "az_id": "use1-az5",
      "bytes": 1,
      "dstaddr": "10.200.0.0",
      "dstport": 33004,
      "end": "2021-03-26T03:29:09Z",
      "flow_direction": "ingress",
      "instance_id": "i-0axxxxxx1ad77",
      "interface_id": "eni-069xxxxxb7a490",
      "log_status": "OK",
      "packets": 52,
      "pkt_dst_aws_service": "CLOUDFRONT",
      "pkt_dstaddr": "10.200.0.80",
      "pkt_src_aws_service": "AMAZON",
      "pkt_srcaddr": "89.160.20.156",
      "protocol": 17,
      "region": "us-east-1",
      "srcaddr": "89.160.20.156",
      "srcport": 50041,
      "start": "2021-03-26T03:28:12Z",
      "sublocation_id": "fake-id",
      "sublocation_type": "wavelength",
      "subnet_id": "subnet-02d645xxxxxxxdbc0",
      "tcp_flags": 1,
      "tcp_flags_array": [
        "fin"
      ],
      "traffic_path": 1,
      "type": "IPv4",
      "version": 5,
      "vpc_id": "vpc-09676f97xxxxxb8a7"
    }
  },
  "cloud": {
    "account": {
      "id": "64111117617"
    },
    "availability_zone": "use1-az5",
    "instance": {
      "id": "i-0axxxxxx1ad77"
    },
    "region": "us-east-1"
  },
  "destination": {
    "address": "10.200.0.0",
    "ip": "10.200.0.0",
    "port": 33004
  },
  "event": {
    "action": "reject",
    "end": "2021-03-26T03:29:09Z",
    "outcome": "failure",
    "start": "2021-03-26T03:28:12Z",
    "type": [
      "connection",
      "denied"
    ]
  },
  "message": "5 64111117617 eni-069xxxxxb7a490 89.160.20.156 10.200.0.0 50041 33004 17 52 1 1616729292 1616729349 REJECT OK vpc-09676f97xxxxxb8a7 subnet-02d645xxxxxxxdbc0 i-0axxxxxx1ad77 1 IPv4 89.160.20.156 10.200.0.80 us-east-1 use1-az5 wavelength fake-id AMAZON CLOUDFRONT ingress 1",
  "network": {
    "bytes": 1,
    "direction": "ingress",
    "iana_number": "17",
    "packets": 52,
    "transport": "udp",
    "type": "ipv4"
  },
  "related": {
    "ip": [
      "89.160.20.156",
      "10.200.0.0",
      "10.200.0.80"
    ]
  },
  "source": {
    "address": "89.160.20.156",
    "bytes": 1,
    "ip": "89.160.20.156",
    "packets": 52,
    "port": 50041
  }
}
```