- Metricbeat Reference: other versions:
- Overview
- Contributing to Beats
- Getting started with Metricbeat
- Setting up and running Metricbeat
- Upgrading Metricbeat
- How Metricbeat works
- Configuring Metricbeat
- Specify which modules to run
- Specify general settings
- Load external configuration files
- Configure the internal queue
- Configure the output
- Specify SSL settings
- Filter and enhance the exported data
- Parse logs by using ingest node
- Set up project paths
- Set up the Kibana endpoint
- Load the Kibana dashboards
- Load the Elasticsearch index template
- Set up logging
- Use environment variables in the configuration
- YAML tips and gotchas
- Regular expression support
- metricbeat.reference.yml
- Modules
- Aerospike module
- Apache module
- Ceph module
- Couchbase module
- Docker module
- Dropwizard module
- Elasticsearch module
- Golang module
- HAProxy module
- HTTP module
- Jolokia module
- Kafka module
- Kibana module
- Kubernetes module
- Kubernetes container metricset
- Kubernetes event metricset
- Kubernetes node metricset
- Kubernetes pod metricset
- Kubernetes state_container metricset
- Kubernetes state_deployment metricset
- Kubernetes state_node metricset
- Kubernetes state_pod metricset
- Kubernetes state_replicaset metricset
- Kubernetes system metricset
- Kubernetes volume metricset
- Memcached module
- MongoDB module
- MySQL module
- Nginx module
- PHP-FPM module
- PostgreSQL Module
- Prometheus module
- RabbitMQ module
- Redis module
- System module
- vSphere module
- Windows module
- ZooKeeper module
- Exported Fields
- Aerospike Fields
- Apache Fields
- Beat Fields
- Ceph Fields
- Cloud Provider Metadata Fields
- Common Fields
- Couchbase Fields
- docker Fields
- Docker Fields
- Dropwizard Fields
- Elasticsearch Fields
- Golang Fields
- HAProxy Fields
- HTTP Fields
- Jolokia Fields
- Kafka Fields
- Kibana Fields
- kubernetes Fields
- Kubernetes Fields
- Memcached Fields
- MongoDB Fields
- MySQL Fields
- Nginx Fields
- PHP-FPM Fields
- PostgreSQL Fields
- Prometheus Fields
- RabbitMQ Fields
- Redis Fields
- System Fields
- vSphere Fields
- Windows Fields
- ZooKeeper Fields
- Securing Metricbeat
- Troubleshooting
WARNING: Version 6.0 of Metricbeat 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.
How Metricbeat works
editHow Metricbeat works
editMetricbeat consists of modules and metricsets. A Metricbeat module defines the basic logic for collecting data from a specific service, such as Redis, MySQL, and so on. The module specifies details about the service, including how to connect, how often to collect metrics, and which metrics to collect.
Each module has one or more metricsets. A metricset is the part of the module
that fetches and structures the data. Rather than collecting each metric as a
separate event, metricsets retrieve a list of multiple related metrics in a single request
to the remote system. So, for example, the Redis module provides an info
metricset that collects information and statistics from Redis by running the
INFO command and parsing the returned result.
Likewise, the MySQL module provides a status metricset that collects data
from MySQL by running a SHOW GLOBAL STATUS
SQL query. Metricsets make it easier for you by grouping sets of related metrics together
in a single request returned by the remote server.
Metricbeat retrieves metrics by periodically interrogating the host system based
on the period value that you specify when you configure the module. Because multiple
metricsets can send requests to the same service, Metricbeat reuses connections
whenever possible. If Metricbeat cannot connect to the host system within the time
specified by the timeout config setting, it returns an error. Metricbeat sends
the events asynchronously, which means the event retrieval is not acknowledged. If
the configured output is not available, events may be lost.
When Metricbeat encounters an error (for example, when it cannot connect to the host system), it sends an event error to the specified output. This means that Metricbeat always sends an event, even when there is a failure. This allows you to monitor for errors and see debug messages to help you diagnose what went wrong.
The following topics provide more detail about the structure of Metricbeat events:
For more about the benefits of using Metricbeat, see Key metricbeat features.