WARNING: Version 6.1 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.

« Setting up and running Filebeat Filebeat commands »

› ›

Directory layout

edit

Directory layout

edit

The directory layout of an installation is as follows:

Type	Description	Default Location	Config Option
home	Home of the Filebeat installation.		`path.home`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`{path.home}/bin`
config	The location for configuration files.	`{path.home}`	`path.config`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`{path.home}/data`	`path.data`
logs	The location for the logs created by Filebeat.	`{path.home}/logs`	`path.logs`

You can change these settings by using CLI flags or setting path options in the configuration file.

Default paths

edit

Filebeat uses the following default paths unless you explicitly change them.

deb and rpm

edit

Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the Filebeat installation.	`/usr/share/filebeat`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`/usr/share/filebeat/bin`
config	The location for configuration files.	`/etc/filebeat`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`/var/lib/filebeat`
logs	The location for the logs created by Filebeat.	`/var/log/filebeat`

For the deb and rpm distributions, these paths are set in the init script or in the systemd unit file. Make sure that you start the Filebeat service by using the preferred operating system method (init scripts or systemctl). Otherwise the paths might be set incorrectly.

docker

edit

Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the Filebeat installation.	`/usr/share/filebeat`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`/usr/share/filebeat`
config	The location for configuration files.	`/usr/share/filebeat`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`/usr/share/filebeat/data`
logs	The location for the logs created by Filebeat.	`/usr/share//filebeat/logs`

zip, tar.gz, and tgz

edit

Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the Filebeat installation.	`{extract.path}`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`{extract.path}`
config	The location for configuration files.	`{extract.path}`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`{extract.path}/data`
logs	The location for the logs created by Filebeat.	`{extract.path}/logs`

For the zip, tar.gz and tgz distributions, these paths are based on the location of the extracted binary file. This means that if you start Filebeat with the following simple command, all paths are set correctly:

./filebeat

« Setting up and running Filebeat Filebeat commands »