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Elastic Docs ›Filebeat Reference [6.4] ›Modules

Elasticsearch module

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Elasticsearch module

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This functionality is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

This is the elasticsearch module.

When you run the module, it performs a few tasks under the hood:

  • Sets the default paths to the log files (but don’t worry, you can override the defaults)
  • Makes sure each multiline log event gets sent as a single event
  • Uses ingest node to parse and process the log lines, shaping the data into a structure suitable for visualizing in Kibana

Compatibility

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The Elasticsearch module is compatible with Elasticsearch 6.2 and newer.

Set up and run the module

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Before doing these steps, verify that Elasticsearch and Kibana are running and that Elasticsearch is ready to receive data from Filebeat.

If you’re running our hosted Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud, or you’ve enabled security in Elasticsearch and Kibana, you need to specify additional connection information before setting up and running the module. See Quick start: modules for common log formats for the complete setup.

To set up and run the module:

  1. Enable the module:

    deb and rpm:

    filebeat modules enable elasticsearch

    mac:

    ./filebeat modules enable elasticsearch

    win:

    PS > .\filebeat.exe modules enable elasticsearch

    This command enables the module config defined in the modules.d directory. See Specify which modules to run for other ways to enable modules.

    To see a list of enabled and disabled modules, run:

    deb and rpm:

    filebeat modules list

    mac:

    ./filebeat modules list

    win:

    PS > .\filebeat.exe modules list

  2. Set up the initial environment:

    deb and rpm:

    filebeat setup -e

    mac:

    ./filebeat setup -e

    win:

    PS > .\filebeat.exe setup -e

    The setup command loads the recommended index template for writing to Elasticsearch and deploys the sample dashboards (if available) for visualizing the data in Kibana. This is a one-time setup step.

    The -e flag is optional and sends output to standard error instead of syslog.

  3. Run Filebeat.

    If your logs aren’t in the default location, see Configure the module, then run Filebeat after you’ve set the paths variable.

    deb and rpm:

    service filebeat start

    mac:

    ./filebeat -e

    win:

    PS > Start-Service filebeat

    If the module is configured correctly, you’ll see INFO Harvester started messages for each file specified in the config.

    Depending on how you’ve installed Filebeat, you might see errors related to file ownership or permissions when you try to run Filebeat modules. See Config File Ownership and Permissions in the Beats Platform Reference for more information.

Configure the module

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You can further refine the behavior of the elasticsearch module by specifying variable settings in the modules.d/elasticsearch.yml file, or overriding settings at the command line.

Variable settings

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Each fileset has separate variable settings for configuring the behavior of the module. If you don’t specify variable settings, the elasticsearch module uses the defaults.

For more information, see Specify variable settings. Also see Advanced settings.

When you specify a setting at the command line, remember to prefix the setting with the module name, for example, elasticsearch.server.var.paths instead of server.var.paths.

server log fileset settings

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var.paths
An array of paths that specify where to look for the log files. If left empty, Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your operating systems.

Fields

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For a description of each field in the module, see the exported fields section.

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