Installation layout

View the installation layout and default paths for both Fleet-managed APM Server and the APM Server binary.

Fleet-managed

Elastic Agent files are installed in the following locations. You cannot override these installation paths because they are required for upgrades.

/Library/Elastic/Agent/*: Elastic Agent program files
/Library/Elastic/Agent/elastic-agent.yml: Main Elastic Agent configuration
/Library/Elastic/Agent/fleet.enc: Main Elastic Agent Fleet encrypted configuration
/Library/Elastic/Agent/data/elastic-agent-*/logs/elastic-agent.ndjson: Log files for Elastic Agent and Beats shippers ^[1]
/usr/bin/elastic-agent: Shell wrapper installed into PATH

You can install Elastic Agent in a custom base path other than /Library. When installing Elastic Agent with the ./elastic-agent install command, use the --base-path CLI option to specify the custom base path.

/opt/Elastic/Agent/*: Elastic Agent program files
/opt/Elastic/Agent/elastic-agent.yml: Main Elastic Agent configuration
/opt/Elastic/Agent/fleet.enc: Main Elastic Agent Fleet encrypted configuration
/opt/Elastic/Agent/data/elastic-agent-*/logs/elastic-agent.ndjson: Log files for Elastic Agent and Beats shippers ^[1]
/usr/bin/elastic-agent: Shell wrapper installed into PATH

You can install Elastic Agent in a custom base path other than /opt. When installing Elastic Agent with the ./elastic-agent install command, use the --base-path CLI option to specify the custom base path.

C:\Program Files\Elastic\Agent*: Elastic Agent program files
C:\Program Files\Elastic\Agent\elastic-agent.yml: Main Elastic Agent configuration
C:\Program Files\Elastic\Agent\fleet.enc: Main Elastic Agent Fleet encrypted configuration
C:\Program Files\Elastic\Agent\data\elastic-agent-*\logs\elastic-agent.ndjson: Log files for Elastic Agent and Beats shippers ^[1]

You can install Elastic Agent in a custom base path other than C:\Program Files. When installing Elastic Agent with the .\elastic-agent.exe install command, use the --base-path CLI option to specify the custom base path.

/usr/share/elastic-agent/*: Elastic Agent program files
/etc/elastic-agent/elastic-agent.yml: Main Elastic Agent configuration
/etc/elastic-agent/fleet.enc: Main Elastic Agent Fleet encrypted configuration
/var/lib/elastic-agent/data/elastic-agent-*/logs/elastic-agent.ndjson: Log files for Elastic Agent and Beats shippers ^[1]
/usr/bin/elastic-agent: Shell wrapper installed into PATH

/usr/share/elastic-agent/*: Elastic Agent program files
/etc/elastic-agent/elastic-agent.yml: Main Elastic Agent configuration
/etc/elastic-agent/fleet.enc: Main Elastic Agent Fleet encrypted configuration
/var/lib/elastic-agent/data/elastic-agent-*/logs/elastic-agent.ndjson: Log files for Elastic Agent and Beats shippers ^[1]
/usr/bin/elastic-agent: Shell wrapper installed into PATH

APM Server binary

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APM Server uses the following default paths unless you explicitly change them.

Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the APM Server installation.	`{extract.path}`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`{extract.path}`
config	The location for configuration files.	`{extract.path}`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`{extract.path}/data`
logs	The location for the logs created by APM Server.	`{extract.path}/logs`

For the ZIP, tar.gz, or TGZ distributions, these paths are based on the location of the extracted binary file. This means that if you start APM Server with the following simple command, all paths are set correctly:

./apm-server

Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the APM Server installation.	`/usr/share/apm-server`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`/usr/share/apm-server`
config	The location for configuration files.	`/usr/share/apm-server`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`/usr/share/apm-server/data`
logs	The location for the logs created by APM Server.	`/usr/share/apm-server/logs`

Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the APM Server installation.	`/usr/share/apm-server`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`/usr/share/apm-server/bin`
config	The location for configuration files.	`/etc/apm-server`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`/var/lib/apm-server`
logs	The location for the logs created by APM Server.	`/var/log/apm-server`

For the deb and rpm distributions, these paths are set in the init script or in the systemd unit file. Make sure that you start the APM Server service by using the preferred operating system method (init scripts or systemctl). Otherwise the paths might be set incorrectly.

^[1] Logs file names end with a date (YYYYMMDD) and optional number: elastic-agent-YYYYMMDD.ndjson, elastic-agent-YYYYMMDD-1.ndjson, and so on as new files are created during rotation.

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