Winlogbeat Configuration

Ship logs to Logit.io via Winlogbeat

Winlogbeat is a Windows specific event-log shipping agent installed as a Windows service. It can be used to collect and send event logs to one or more destinations, including Logstash.

Install Integration

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

Install Winlogbeat

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

Choose the winlogbeat ZIP file (opens in a new tab) (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 winlogbeat 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 winlogbeat
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 winlogbeat as a Windows service:

cd 'C:\Program Files\@beatname'

.\install-service-@beatname.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-@beatname.ps1

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

If you have chosen to download the winlogbeat.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 winlogbeat 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 winlogbeat was installed and run the following command to install winlogbeat as a Windows service:

.\install-service-@beatname.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-@beatname.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 'hosts' field in the Logstash outputs section is correctly populated. If you are logged into your Logit.io account the 'hosts' field should have been pre-populated with the correct values.

Copy the configuration file below (making the above changes as necessary) and overwrite the contents of winlogbeat.yml. (If you used the installer program to install winlogbeat the winlogbeat.yml file may not exist so you'll need to create it and add the details below).

###################### Logit.io Winlogbeat Configuration ########################
# ============================== Winlogbeat specific options ==============================
winlogbeat.event_logs:
- name: Application
  ignore_older: 72h
 
- name: System
 
- name: Security
 
- name: Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
  tags: [sysmon]
 
- name: Windows PowerShell
  event_id: 400, 403, 600, 800
 
- name: Microsoft-Windows-PowerShell/Operational
  event_id: 4103, 4104, 4105, 4106
 
- name: ForwardedEvents
  tags: [forwarded]    
 
fields:
    type: wineventlog
 
fields_under_root: true  
 
# ================================== Outputs ===================================
# ------------------------------ Logstash Output -------------------------------
output.logstash:
    hosts: ["@logstash.host:@logstash.sslPort"]
    loadbalance: true
    ssl.enabled: true
 
    pipeline: "winlogbeat-%{[agent.version]}-routing"
 
# ================================= Processors =================================
processors:
    - add_host_metadata:
        when.not.contains.tags: forwarded
    - add_cloud_metadata: ~

Validate Configuration

From the PowerShell prompt, (in the directory where winlogbeat was installed) and run the following command to validate your configuration file:

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

If the yml file is valid, winlogbeat will print Config OK. If there's a problem you should get an error message with details of the error.

Start winlogbeat

From the PowerShell prompt, (in the directory where winlogbeat was installed) run the following command:

Start-Service winlogbeat

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.

Packetbeat Observability