Filebeat and systemd
editFilebeat and systemd
editThe DEB and RPM packages include a service unit for Linux systems with systemd. On these systems, you can manage Filebeat by using the usual systemd commands.
Start and stop Filebeat
editUse systemctl to start or stop Filebeat:
systemctl start filebeat
systemctl stop filebeat
By default, the Filebeat service starts automatically when the system boots. To enable or disable auto start use:
systemctl enable filebeat
systemctl disable filebeat
Filebeat status and logs
editTo get the service status, use systemctl:
systemctl status filebeat
Logs are stored by default in journald. To view the Logs, use journalctl:
journalctl -u filebeat.service
The unit file included in the packages sets the -e flag by default.
This flag makes Filebeat log to stderr and disables other log outputs.
Systemd stores all output sent to stderr in journald.
Customize systemd unit for Filebeat
editThe systemd service unit file includes environment variables that you can override to change the default options.
| Variable | Description | Default value |
|---|---|---|
BEAT_LOG_OPTS |
Log options |
|
BEAT_CONFIG_OPTS |
Flags for configuration file path |
|
BEAT_PATH_OPTS |
Other paths |
|
To override these variables, create a drop-in unit file in the
/etc/systemd/system/filebeat.service.d directory.
For example a file with the following content placed in
/etc/systemd/system/filebeat.service.d/debug.conf
would override BEAT_LOG_OPTS to enable debug for Elasticsearch output.
[Service] Environment="BEAT_LOG_OPTS=-e -d elasticsearch"
To change the logging output from the Filebeat configuration file, empty the environment variable. For example:
[Service] Environment="BEAT_LOG_OPTS="
To apply your changes, reload the systemd configuration and restart the service:
systemctl daemon-reload systemctl restart filebeat
It is recommended that you use a configuration management tool to
include drop-in unit files. If you need to add a drop-in manually, use
systemctl edit filebeat.service.