Kafka MQ

Collect and ship topics from Kafka message queue to Logstash and Elasticsearch

Follow the steps below to send your observability data to Logit.io

Logs

Filebeat is a lightweight shipper that enables you to send your Apache Kafka message queue logs to Logstash and Elasticsearch. Configure Filebeat using the pre-defined examples below to start sending and analysing your Apache Kafka message queue logs.

Install Integration

Please click on the Install Integration button to configure your stack for this source.

Install Filebeat

To get started you will need to install filebeat. To do this you have two main options:

Choose the filebeat (opens in a new tab) ZIP file (Windows ZIP x86_64) or
Choose the Microsoft Software Installer MSI (opens in a new tab) file (Windows MSI x86_64 (beta))

To successfully install filebeat and set up the required Windows service you will need to have administrator access.

If you have chosen to download the zip file:

Extract the contents of the zip file into C:\Program Files.
Rename the extracted folder to filebeat
Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator (right-click the PowerShell icon and select Run As Administrator).
From the PowerShell prompt, run the following commands to install filebeat as a Windows service:

cd 'C:\Program Files\filebeat'

.\install-service-filebeat.ps1

If script execution is disabled on your system, you need to set the execution policy for the current session to allow the script to run. For example:

PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted -File .\install-service-filebeat.ps1

For more information about Powershell execution policies see here (opens in a new tab).

If you have chosen to download the filebeat.msi file:

double-click on it and the relevant files will be downloaded.

At the end of the installation process you'll be given the option to open the folder where filebeat has been installed.

Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator (right-click the PowerShell icon and select Run As Administrator).
From the PowerShell prompt, change directory to the location where filebeat was installed and run the following command to install filebeat as a Windows service:

.\install-service-filebeat.ps1

If script execution is disabled on your system, you need to set the execution policy for the current session to allow the script to run. For example:

PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted -File .\install-service-filebeat.ps1

For more information about Powershell execution policies see here (opens in a new tab).

Update Your Configuration File

The configuration file below is pre-configured to send data to your Logit.io Stack via Logstash.

Note: Please make sure the 'paths' field in the Filebeat inputs section and the 'hosts' field in the Logstash outputs section are correctly populated. If you are logged into your Logit.io account the 'hosts' field should have been pre-populated with the correct values. The 'paths' field will need to be set to the location of the logs you want to send to your Stack.

Copy the configuration file below (making the above changes as necessary) and overwrite the contents of filebeat.yml (this file can be found in the location where you installed Filebeat in the previous step. If it is missing create a new file with that name and populate it with the configuration details below).

###################### Logit.io Filebeat Configuration ########################
# ============================== Filebeat inputs ==============================
filebeat.inputs:
- type: kafka
  hosts:
    - name-of-your-broker:your-broker-port
  # - localhost:9092        (Example)
  topics: ["name-of-your-topic", "name-of-another-topic"]
  group_id: "filebeat"
 
# ============================== Filebeat modules ==============================
filebeat.config.modules:
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml
  reload.enabled: false
  #reload.period: 10s
 
# ================================== Outputs ===================================
# ------------------------------ Logstash Output -------------------------------
output.logstash:
  hosts: ["@logstash.host:@logstash.sslPort"]
  loadbalance: true
  ssl.enabled: true
 
# ================================= Processors =================================
processors:
  - add_host_metadata:
      when.not.contains.tags: forwarded
  - add_cloud_metadata: ~
  - add_docker_metadata: ~
  - add_kubernetes_metadata: ~

Validate Configuration

In the directory where Filebeat is installed, run the following command to validate the installation:

.\@beatname.exe test config -c @beatname.yml

If the yml file is invalid, @beatname will print a description of the error. For example, if the output.logstash section was missing, @beatname would print no outputs are defined, please define one under the output section

Start filebeat

To start Filebeat, run in Powershell:

Start-Service filebeat

Check Logit.io for your logs

Data should now have been sent to your Stack.

View My Data

If you don't see logs take a look at How to diagnose no data in Stack below for how to diagnose common issues.

Apache Kafka Logging Overview

Apache Kafka is a distributed streaming platform written in Scala & Java, that is primarily used for generating low latency real-time data streaming pipelines for apps & data lake engines.

Kafka offers users the ability to publish & subscribe to record streams, decouple data & sort the aggregated data in chronological order for improved real-time processing. The platform is suited to processing many trillions of cross systems events per day making the tool ideal as a big data solution.

Kafka is one of the leading Apache projects and is used by enterprise level businesses globally; including Uber, LinkedIn, Netflix & Twitter. Much of this infrastructure also uses Logstash, which works side by side with the platform as Kafka acts as a buffer between the two for improved resilience.

The combined power of Elasticsearch, Logstash & Kibana form the Elastic Stack which can be used for efficient log analysis (opens in a new tab) as platform & Kafka broker logs contain vital information on the performance & overall health of your systems.

Our hosted Elastic Stack (opens in a new tab) solution can help monitor & visualise Kafka logs and alert you on performance issues & broker degradation in real time. Logit.io's built in Kibana can easily generate dashboards for capturing various Kafka log messages along with their severity counts.

If you need any assistance with analysing your Kafka logs (no matter if their server, utils or state-change logs) we're here to help. Feel free to get in touch by contacting the Logit.io help team via live chat & we'll be happy to help you start analysing your log data.

Kafka KeyCDN