Filebeat Latest Version : 6.2.4

Filebeat Download Link :  https://www.elastic.co/downloads/beats/filebeat

 Download filebeat from above link according to your Operating System and copy to directory where you want to install.

 Installation on Linux :  Go to directory where tar file was copied and use below    command to install it.

tar –zxvf filebeat--linux-x86.tar.gz

Installation on Windows: Go to directory where zip file was copied and unzip  file.

unzip file filebeat--window-xxx.zip file

Before Test and Run filebeat installation need to make below configuration changes in filbeat.yml file for prospectors,Output ,logging etc. Prospectors changes are required rest of changes optional and decide based on application requirements.

Required Change:

• Filebeat Configuration Changes for Prospectors to Read Log files

 Optional Change : Based on your Application Requirement

• Filebeat Configuration Changes for Multiline Logs Handling like stacktrace, Objects, XML, JSON etc.
• Filebeat Configuration Changes for Elasticsearch Output
• Filebeat Configuration Changes for Logstash Output
• Filebeat Configuration Changes for Kafka Output
• Filebeat Configuration Changes for Logging
• Filebeat Commandline Arguments setting in configuration file

 Run/Start Filebeat On Linux:

./filebeat -e -c filebeat.yml -d "publish"

For running filebeat in background add “screen –d –m” as given below:

screen -d -m ./filebeat -e -c filebeat.yml -d "publish"

For Logging filebeat output to log file remove –e option from command as given below and follow link Filebeat Configuration Changes for Logging  for more info.

./filebeat  -c filebeat.yml -d "publish"

screen -d -m ./filebeat  -c filebeat.yml -d "publish"

Filebeat 5 added new features of passing command line arguments while start filebeat. This is really helpful because no change required in filebeat.yml configuration file specifics to servers and and pass server specific information over command line. If in future your servers scaling and changes in output port and machine IP for elasticsearch or kafka or logstash. Then configuration team need to update only command line arguments for specific information and no change in configuration file.

Run/Start Filebeat with command line Arguments in Forground:

./filebeat -c filebeat.yml -d publish -E server= -E file=app1.log  -E tz=CDT -E                     kafkaHost=IP:PORT

Run In Background :

screen –d –m ./filebeat -c filebeat.yml -d publish -E server= -E  file=app1.log  -E tz=CDT -E kafkaHost=IP:PORT

Here -E option represents argument values are passing from command line will set in respective position in filebeat.yml configuration file. Follow link Filebeat Commandline Arguments setting in configuration file .

Integration

Complete Integration Example Filebeat, Kafka, Logstash, Elasticsearch and Kibana

Read More

To read more on Filebeat topics, sample configuration files and integration with other systems with example follow link Filebeat Tutorial  and  Filebeat Issues. To know more about YAML/YML follow YAML Tutorials

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