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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.
	If you are planning to set up the Kibana dashboards, the user must have the `kibana_user` built-in role or equivalent privileges.

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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