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Step 2: Configure Winlogbeat

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Step 2: Configure Winlogbeat

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To configure Winlogbeat, you edit the winlogbeat.yml configuration file. See the Config File Format section of the Beats Platform Reference for more about the structure of the config file.

Here is a sample of the winlogbeat.yml file:

winlogbeat.event_logs:
  - name: Application
  - name: Security
  - name: System

output.elasticsearch:
  hosts:
    - localhost:9200

logging.to_files: true
logging.files:
  path: C:/ProgramData/winlogbeat/Logs
logging.level: info

To configure Winlogbeat:

In the event_logs section, specify the event logs that you want to monitor. By default, Winlogbeat is set to monitor application, security, and system logs:
```
winlogbeat.event_logs:
  - name: Application
  - name: Security
  - name: System
```
To obtain a list of available event logs, run Get-EventLog * in PowerShell. For more information about this command, see the configuration details for event_logs.name.
If you are sending output directly to Elasticsearch (and not using Logstash), set the IP address and port where Winlogbeat can find the Elasticsearch installation:
```
output.elasticsearch:
  hosts:
    - localhost:9200
```
If you are sending output to Logstash, make sure you Configure the Logstash output instead.
If you plan to use the sample Kibana dashboards provided with Winlogbeat, configure the Kibana endpoint:
```
setup.kibana:
  host: "localhost:5601"
```
Where host is the hostname and port of the machine where Kibana is running, for example, localhost:5601.

If you specify a path after the port number, you need to include the scheme and port: http://localhost:5601/path.
If you’ve secured Elasticsearch and Kibana, you need to specify credentials in the config file before you run the commands that set up and start Winlogbeat. For example:
```
output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["myEShost:9200"]
  username: "elastic"
  password: "elastic"
setup.kibana:
  host: "mykibanahost:5601"
  username: "elastic" 
  password: "elastic"
```
The username and password settings for Kibana are optional. If you don’t specify credentials for Kibana, Winlogbeat uses the username and password specified for the Elasticsearch output.

Also see the security-related options described in Set up the Kibana endpoint and Configure the Elasticsearch output.

After you save your configuration file, test it with the following command.

PS C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat> .\winlogbeat.exe test config -c .\winlogbeat.yml -e

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