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Elastic Docs ›Filebeat Reference [7.17] ›Configure Filebeat

Autodiscover

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Autodiscover

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When you run applications on containers, they become moving targets to the monitoring system. Autodiscover allows you to track them and adapt settings as changes happen. By defining configuration templates, the autodiscover subsystem can monitor services as they start running.

You define autodiscover settings in the filebeat.autodiscover section of the filebeat.yml config file. To enable autodiscover, you specify a list of providers.

Providers

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Autodiscover providers work by watching for events on the system and translating those events into internal autodiscover events with a common format. When you configure the provider, you can optionally use fields from the autodiscover event to set conditions that, when met, launch specific configurations.

On start, Filebeat will scan existing containers and launch the proper configs for them. Then it will watch for new start/stop events. This ensures you don’t need to worry about state, but only define your desired configs.

Docker
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The Docker autodiscover provider watches for Docker containers to start and stop.

These are the fields available within config templating. The docker.* fields will be available on each emitted event. event:

  • host
  • port
  • docker.container.id
  • docker.container.image
  • docker.container.name
  • docker.container.labels

For example:

{
  "host": "10.4.15.9",
  "port": 6379,
  "docker": {
    "container": {
      "id": "382184ecdb385cfd5d1f1a65f78911054c8511ae009635300ac28b4fc357ce51"
      "name": "redis",
      "image": "redis:3.2.11",
      "labels": {
        "io.kubernetes.pod.namespace": "default"
        ...
      }
    }
  }
}

You can define a set of configuration templates to be applied when the condition matches an event. Templates define a condition to match on autodiscover events, together with the list of configurations to launch when this condition happens.

Conditions match events from the provider. Providers use the same format for Conditions that processors use.

Configuration templates can contain variables from the autodiscover event. They can be accessed under the data namespace. For example, with the example event, "${data.port}" resolves to 6379.

Filebeat supports templates for inputs and modules.

filebeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: docker
      templates:
        - condition:
            contains:
              docker.container.image: redis
          config:
            - type: container
              paths:
                - /var/lib/docker/containers/${data.docker.container.id}/*.log
              exclude_lines: ["^\\s+[\\-`('.|_]"]  # drop asciiart lines

This configuration launches a docker logs input for all containers running an image with redis in the name. labels.dedot defaults to be true for docker autodiscover, which means dots in docker labels are replaced with _ by default.

If you are using modules, you can override the default input and use the docker input instead.

filebeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: docker
      templates:
        - condition:
            contains:
              docker.container.image: redis
          config:
            - module: redis
              log:
                input:
                  type: container
                  paths:
                    - /var/lib/docker/containers/${data.docker.container.id}/*.log

When using autodiscover, you have to be careful when defining config templates, especially if they are reading from places holding information for several containers. For instance, under this file structure:

/mnt/logs/<container_id>/*.log

You can define a config template like this:

Wrong settings:

autodiscover.providers:
  - type: docker
    templates:
      - condition.contains:
          docker.container.image: nginx
        config:
          - type: log
            paths:
              - "/mnt/logs/*/*.log"

That would read all the files under the given path several times (one per nginx container). What you really want is to scope your template to the container that matched the autodiscover condition. Good settings:

autodiscover.providers:
  - type: docker
    templates:
      - condition.contains:
          docker.container.image: nginx
        config:
          - type: log
            paths:
              - "/mnt/logs/${data.docker.container.id}/*.log"

It has the following settings:

host
(Optional) Docker socket (UNIX or TCP socket). It uses unix:///var/run/docker.sock by default.
ssl
(Optional) SSL configuration to use when connecting to the Docker socket.
cleanup_timeout
(Optional) Specify the time of inactivity before stopping the running configuration for a container, 60s by default.
labels.dedot
(Optional) Default to be false. If set to true, replace dots in labels with _.
Kubernetes
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The Kubernetes autodiscover provider watches for Kubernetes nodes, pods, services to start, update, and stop.

These are the fields available within config templating. The kubernetes.* fields will be available on each emitted event.

Generic fields:
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  • host
  • port (if exposed)
  • kubernetes.labels
  • kubernetes.annotations
Pod specific:
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  • kubernetes.container.id
  • kubernetes.container.image
  • kubernetes.container.name
  • kubernetes.namespace
  • kubernetes.node.name
  • kubernetes.pod.name
  • kubernetes.pod.uid
Node specific:
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  • kubernetes.node.name
  • kubernetes.node.uid
Service specific:
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  • kubernetes.namespace
  • kubernetes.service.name
  • kubernetes.service.uid
  • kubernetes.annotations

If the include_annotations config is added to the provider config, then the list of annotations present in the config are added to the event.

If the include_labels config is added to the provider config, then the list of labels present in the config will be added to the event.

If the exclude_labels config is added to the provider config, then the list of labels present in the config will be excluded from the event.

if the labels.dedot config is set to be true in the provider config, then . in labels will be replaced with _. By default it is true.

if the annotations.dedot config is set to be true in the provider config, then . in annotations will be replaced with _. By default it is true.

For example:

{
  "host": "172.17.0.21",
  "port": 9090,
  "kubernetes": {
    "container": {
      "id": "bb3a50625c01b16a88aa224779c39262a9ad14264c3034669a50cd9a90af1527",
      "image": "prom/prometheus",
      "name": "prometheus"
    },
    "labels": {
      "project": "prometheus",
      ...
    },
    "namespace": "default",
    "node": {
      "name": "minikube"
    },
    "pod": {
      "name": "prometheus-2657348378-k1pnh"
    }
  },
}

The configuration of templates and conditions is similar to that of the Docker provider. Configuration templates can contain variables from the autodiscover event. They can be accessed under data namespace.

The kubernetes autodiscover provider has the following configuration settings:

node
(Optional) Specify the node to scope filebeat to in case it cannot be accurately detected, as when running filebeat in host network mode.
namespace
(Optional) Select the namespace from which to collect the metadata. If it is not set, the processor collects metadata from all namespaces. It is unset by default. The namespace configuration only applies to kubernetes resources that are namespace scoped.
cleanup_timeout
(Optional) Specify the time of inactivity before stopping the running configuration for a container, 60s by default.
kube_config
(Optional) Use given config file as configuration for Kubernetes client. If kube_config is not set, KUBECONFIG environment variable will be checked and if not present it will fall back to InCluster.
resource
(Optional) Select the resource to do discovery on. Currently supported Kubernetes resources are pod, service and node. If not configured resource defaults to pod.
scope
(Optional) Specify at what level autodiscover needs to be done at. scope can either take node or cluster as values. node scope allows discovery of resources in the specified node. cluster scope allows cluster wide discovery. Only pod and node resources can be discovered at node scope.
add_resource_metadata
(Optional) Specify labels and annotations filters for the extra metadata coming from Node and Namespace. add_resource_metadata can be done for node or namespace. By default all labels will be included while annotations are not added by default. This settings are useful when labels' and annotations' storing requires special handling to avoid overloading the storage output. The enrichment of node or namespace metadata can be individually disabled by setting enabled: false. If resource is pod and it is created from a deployment, by default the deployment name is added, this can be disabled by setting deployment: false. Example: 
      add_resource_metadata:
        namespace:
          include_labels: ["namespacelabel1"]
        node:
          include_labels: ["nodelabel2"]
          include_annotations: ["nodeannotation1"]
        deployment: false
unique
(Optional) Defaults to false. Marking an autodiscover provider as unique results into making the provider to enable the provided templates only when it will gain the leader lease. This setting can only be combined with cluster scope. When unique is enabled enabled, resource and add_resource_metadata settings are not taken into account.
leader_lease
(Optional) Defaults to {beatname_lc}-cluster-leader. This will be name of the lock lease. One can monitor the status of the lease with kubectl describe lease beats-cluster-leader. Different Beats that refer to the same leader lease will be competitors in holding the lease and only one will be elected as leader each time.

Filebeat supports templates for inputs and modules.

filebeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: kubernetes
      templates:
        - condition:
            equals:
              kubernetes.namespace: kube-system
          config:
            - type: container
              paths:
                - /var/log/containers/*-${data.kubernetes.container.id}.log
              exclude_lines: ["^\\s+[\\-`('.|_]"]  # drop asciiart lines

This configuration launches a docker logs input for all containers of pods running in the Kubernetes namespace kube-system.

If you are using modules, you can override the default input and use the docker input instead.

filebeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: kubernetes
      templates:
        - condition:
            equals:
              kubernetes.container.image: "redis"
          config:
            - module: redis
              log:
                input:
                  type: container
                  paths:
                    - /var/log/containers/*-${data.kubernetes.container.id}.log
Jolokia
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The Jolokia autodiscover provider uses Jolokia Discovery to find agents running in your host or your network.

Jolokia Discovery mechanism is supported by any Jolokia agent since version 1.2.0, it is enabled by default when Jolokia is included in the application as a JVM agent, but disabled in other cases as the OSGI or WAR (Java EE) agents. In any case, this feature is controlled with two properties:

  • discoveryEnabled, to enable the feature
  • discoveryAgentUrl, if set, this is the URL announced by the agent when being discovered, setting this parameter implicitly enables the feature

There are multiple ways of setting these properties, and they can vary from application to application, please refer to the documentation of your application to find the more suitable way to set them in your case.

Jolokia Discovery is based on UDP multicast requests. Agents join the multicast group 239.192.48.84, port 24884, and discovery is done by sending queries to this group. You have to take into account that UDP traffic between Filebeat and the Jolokia agents has to be allowed. Also notice that this multicast address is in the 239.0.0.0/8 range, that is reserved for private use within an organization, so it can only be used in private networks.

These are the available fields during within config templating. The jolokia.* fields will be available on each emitted event.

  • jolokia.agent.id
  • jolokia.agent.version
  • jolokia.secured
  • jolokia.server.product
  • jolokia.server.vendor
  • jolokia.server.version
  • jolokia.url

The configuration of this provider consists in a set of network interfaces, as well as a set of templates as in other providers. The network interfaces will be the ones used for discovery probes, they have these settings:

name
the name of the interface (e.g. br0), it can contain a wildcard as suffix to apply the same settings to multiple network interfaces of the same type (e.g. br*).
interval
time between probes (defaults to 10s)
grace_period
time since the last reply to consider an instance stopped (defaults to 30s)
probe_timeout
max time to wait for responses since a probe is sent (defaults to 1s)

Filebeat supports templates for inputs and modules:

filebeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: jolokia
      interfaces:
      - name: lo
      templates:
      - condition:
          contains:
            jolokia.server.product: "kafka"
        config:
        - module: kafka
          log:
            enabled: true
            var.paths:
            - /var/log/kafka/*.log

This configuration starts a jolokia module that collects logs of kafka if it is running. Discovery probes are sent using the local interface.

Nomad
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This functionality is in technical preview and may be changed or removed in a future release. Elastic will work to fix any issues, but features in technical preview are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

The Nomad autodiscover provider watches for Nomad jobs to start, update, and stop.

These are the available fields during config templating. The nomad.* fields will be available on each emitted event.

  • nomad.allocation.id
  • nomad.allocation.name
  • nomad.allocation.status
  • nomad.datacenter
  • nomad.job.name
  • nomad.job.type
  • nomad.namespace
  • nomad.region
  • nomad.task.name
  • nomad.task.service.canary_tags
  • nomad.task.service.name
  • nomad.task.service.tags

If the include_labels config is added to the provider config, then the list of labels present in the config will be added to the event.

If the exclude_labels config is added to the provider config, then the list of labels present in the config will be excluded from the event.

if the labels.dedot config is set to be true in the provider config, then . in labels will be replaced with _.

For example:

{
  ...
  "region": "europe",
  "allocation": {
    "name": "coffeshop.api[0]",
    "id": "35eba07f-e5e4-20ac-6def-85117bee6efb",
    "status": "running"
  },
  "datacenters": [
    "europe-west4"
  ],
  "namespace": "default",
  "job": {
    "type": "service",
    "name": "coffeshop"
  },
  "task": {
    "service": {
      "name": [
        "coffeshop"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "coffeshop",
        "nginx"
      ],
      "canary_tags": [
        "coffeshop"
      ]
    },
    "name": "api"
  },
  ...
}

The configuration of templates and conditions is similar to that of the Docker provider. Configuration templates can contain variables from the autodiscover event. They can be accessed under data namespace.

The nomad autodiscover provider has the following configuration settings:

address
(Optional) Specify the address of the Nomad agent. By default it will try to talk to a Nomad agent running locally (http://127.0.0.1:4646).
region
(Optional) Region to use. If not provided, the default agent region is used.
namespace
(Optional) Namespace to use. If not provided the default namespace is used.
secret_id
(Optional) SecretID to use if ACL is enabled in Nomad. This is an example ACL policy to apply to the token. 
namespace "*" {
  policy = "read"
}
node {
  policy = "read"
}
agent {
  policy = "read"
}
node
(Optional) Specify the node to scope filebeat to in case it cannot be accurately detected when node scope is used.
scope
(Optional) Specify at what level autodiscover needs to be done at. scope can either take node or cluster as values. node scope allows discovery of resources in the specified node. cluster scope allows cluster wide discovery. Defaults to node.
wait_time
(Optional) Limits how long a Watch will block. If not specified (or set to 0) the default configuration from the agent will be used.
allow_stale
(Optional) allows any Nomad server (non-leader) to service a read. This normally means that the local node where filebeat is allocated will service filebeat’s requests. Defaults to true.

Filebeat supports templates for inputs and modules.

filebeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: nomad
      node: nomad1
      scope: local
      hints.enabled: true
      allow_stale: true
      templates:
        - condition:
            equals:
              nomad.namespace: web
          config:
            - type: log
              paths:
                - /var/lib/nomad/alloc/${data.nomad.allocation.id}/alloc/logs/${data.nomad.task.name}.stderr.[0-9]*
              exclude_lines: ["^\\s+[\\-`('.|_]"]  # drop asciiart lines

This configuration launches a log input for all jobs under the web Nomad namespace.

If you are using modules, you can override the default input and customize it to read from the ${data.nomad.task.name}.stdout and/or ${data.nomad.task.name}.stderr files.

filebeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: nomad
      templates:
        - condition:
            equals:
              nomad.task.service.tags: "redis"
          config:
            - module: redis
              log:
                input:
                  type: log
                  paths:
                    - /var/lib/nomad/alloc/${data.nomad.allocation.id}/alloc/logs/${data.nomad.task.name}.*

The docker input is currently not supported. Nomad doesn’t expose the container ID associated with the allocation. Without the container ID, there is no way of generating the proper path for reading the container’s logs.

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