- Filebeat Reference: other versions:
- Overview
- Getting Started With Filebeat
- Upgrading Filebeat
- How Filebeat Works
- Configuring Filebeat
- Configuration Options (Reference)
- Filebeat Prospectors Configuration
- Filebeat Global Configuration
- General Configuration
- Elasticsearch Output Configuration
- Logstash Output Configuration
- Kafka Output Configuration
- Redis Output Configuration
- File Output Configuration
- Console Output Configuration
- SSL Configuration
- Paths Configuration
- Logging Configuration
- Processors
- Filtering and Enhancing the Exported Data
- Managing Multiline Messages
- Configuring Filebeat to Use Ingest Node
- Using Environment Variables in the Configuration
- Specifying Multiple Prospectors
- Load Balancing
- YAML Tips and Gotchas
- Regular Expression Support
- Configuration Options (Reference)
- Exported Fields
- Securing Filebeat
- Troubleshooting
- Migrating from Logstash Forwarder to Filebeat
WARNING: Version 5.2 of Filebeat has passed its EOL date.
This documentation is no longer being maintained and may be removed. If you are running this version, we strongly advise you to upgrade. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.
Overview
editOverview
editFilebeat is a log data shipper. Installed as an agent on your servers, Filebeat monitors the log directories or specific log files, tails the files, and forwards them either to Elasticsearch or Logstash for indexing.
Here’s how Filebeat works: When you start Filebeat, it starts one or more prospectors that look in the paths you’ve specified for log files. For each log file that the prospector locates, Filebeat starts a harvester. Each harvester reads a single log file for new content and sends the new log data to the spooler, which aggregates the events and sends the aggregated data to the output that you’ve configured for Filebeat.
For more information about prospectors and harvesters, see How Filebeat Works.
Filebeat is a Beat, and it is based on the libbeat framework. General information about libbeat and setting up Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana are covered in the Beats Platform Reference.