Logstash Logging Configuration

Ship logs to your hosted Logstash instance at Logit

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

Logs

Filebeat is an open source shipping agent that lets you ship logs from local files to one or more destinations, including Logstash.

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 the Logstash module

There are several built in filebeat modules you can use. You will need to enable the logstash module:

.\filebeat.exe modules list
.\filebeat.exe modules enable logstash

In the module config under modules.d, change the module settings to match your environment. You must enable at least one fileset in the module.

Filesets are disabled by default.

Copy the snippet below and replace the contents of the logstash.yml module file:

# Module: logstash
# Docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/8.12/filebeat-module-logstash.html
 
- module: logstash
  # logs
  log:
    enabled: true
 
    # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
    # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
    # var.paths:
 
  # Slow logs
  slowlog:
    enabled: true
    # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
    # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
    # var.paths:

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 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 take a look at How to diagnose no data in Stack below for how to diagnose common issues.

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.

Logstash Overview

What Is Logstash?

Logstash is an open-source light-weight processing pipeline created by Elastic. It is the most popular data pipeline used for Elasticsearch as their close integration allows for powerful log processing capabilities.

What is Logstash Used For?

Logstash makes up an essential part of the ELK Stack as it provides the easiest solution for collecting, parsing, and storing logs for analysis & monitoring.

Logstash's wide range of over 200 open-source plugins help you easily index your data across multiple log types including error, event & web server files from hundreds of popular integrations. The tool offers an array of input, output, & filter plugins for enriching, and transforming data from a variety of sources including Golang, Google Cloud, & Azure.

What Are The Advantages Of Using Logstash?

Some of the advantages of using this pipeline include high availability & flexibility, due to the wide adoption of ELK & the large community supporting their regularly maintained plugins. Some of the most popular plugins include Logtrailing (for tailing live events), Beats (including Metricbeat & Heartbeat), & TCP.

Logstash also benefits from having a straightforward configuration format that reduces the complexity of getting started with ELK. Data ingestion using Logstash is enriched prior to being indexed by Elasticsearch, making it readily available for filtering, analysis & reporting in Kibana once data is migrated to your ELK Stack

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