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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Observability [master] ›Application and service monitoring ›Application performance monitoring (APM)

Get started with APM

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Get started with APM

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Starting in version 8.15.0, the Elasticsearch apm-data plugin manages APM index templates, lifecycle policies, and ingest pipelines.

The APM Server receives performance data from your APM agents, validates and processes it, and then transforms the data into Elasticsearch documents. If you’re on this page, then you’ve chosen to self-manage the Elastic Stack, and you now must decide how to run and configure the APM Server. There are two options, and the components required are different for each:

Fleet-managed APM Server
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Fleet is a web-based UI in Kibana that is used to centrally manage Elastic Agents. In this deployment model, use Elastic Agent to spin up APM Server instances that can be centrally-managed in a custom-curated user interface.

APM Server fleet overview

Pros
  • Conveniently manage one, some, or many different integrations from one central Fleet UI.
  • Centrally manage multiple APM Servers running on edge machines.

Supported outputs
  • Elasticsearch
  • Elasticsearch Service

Fleet-managed APM Server does not support all the outputs that are supported by the APM Server binary method of running Elastic APM.

Required components
  • APM agents
  • Elastic Agent (which runs multiple subprocesses including APM Server, Fleet Server, and Elastic Stack)

Configuration method

Kibana UI
APM Server binary
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Install, configure, and run the APM Server binary wherever you need it.

APM Server binary overview

Pros
  • Simplest self-managed option
  • No addition component knowledge required
  • YAML configuration simplifies automation

Supported outputs
  • Elasticsearch
  • Elasticsearch Service
  • Logstash
  • Kafka
  • Redis
  • File
  • Console

Required components
  • APM agents
  • APM Server
  • Elastic Stack

Configuration method

YAML
Help me decide
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This decision tree highlights key factors to help you make an informed decision about implementing Elastic APM. It provides practical guidance and is not intended to serve as a comprehensive reference of all possible implementations and capabilities.

APM Server binary Fleet-managed APM Server YAML UI Curated UI or YAML-based? What is your preferred method of configuration? no yes Integrations collect observability data from specific services and protect endpoints. Do you want to use other integrations with APM Server? Logstash or Kafka Elasticsearch Most users need Elasticsearch Which output are you using? APM agents live on edge machines a single APM Server is hosted centrally but Centrally hosted APM agents APM Server live on each edge machine and Edge machines Note that central is required for RUM. Where will you run APM Server? no yes Elastic Cloud simplifies the management and deployment of Elastic APM. Are you using Elastic Cloud?
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