IIS Log Configuration

Ship logs from your IIS Websites to Logstash

Send your IIS logs to Logit.io via logstash using the instructions below.

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).

Enable IIS module in Filebeat

We need to enable the IIS module in Filebeat so that filebeat know to look for IIS logs. In Powershell run the following command:

.\Filebeat modules enable iis

The iis.yml module file in the modules.d folder in your Filebeat installation directory will need to be updated. You must enable at least one fileset in the module. Filesets are disabled by default. Below is an example with both the access and error logs enabled. You will need to update the var.paths to the location where the logs are stored. The commented out var.paths are the default locations for the logs.

- module: iis
  # Access logs
  access:
    enabled: true
 
  # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
  # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
  # var.paths: ["C:/inetpub/logs/LogFiles/*/*.log"]
 
  # Error logs
  error:
    enabled: true
 
  # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
  # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
  # var.paths: ["C:/Windows/System32/LogFiles/HTTPERR/*.log"]

Update Your Configuration File

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

Copy the configuration file below and overwrite the contents of filebeat.yml.

# ============================== 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: ~

If you're running Filebeat 7 add this code block to the end. Otherwise, you can leave it out.

# ... For Filebeat 7 only ...
filebeat.registry.path: /var/lib/filebeat

If you're running Filebeat 6 add this code block to the end. Otherwise, you can leave it out.

# ... For Filebeat 6 only ...
registry_file: /var/lib/filebeat/registry

Validate your YAML

It's a good idea to run the configuration file through a YAML validator to rule out indentation errors, clean up extra characters, and check if your YAML file is valid. Yamllint.com (opens in a new tab) is a great choice.

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 @beatname, run in Powershell:

Start-Service @beatname

Launch Logs to View Your Data

Launch Logs

How to diagnose no data in Stack

If you don't see data appearing in your stack after following this integration, take a look at the troubleshooting guide for steps to diagnose and resolve the problem or contact our support team and we'll be happy to assist.

IIS dashboard

The IIS module comes with predefined Kibana dashboards. To view your dashboards for any of your Logit.io stacks, launch Logs and choose Dashboards. Predefined kibana dashboard screenshot

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