Step 3: Set up and run Filebeat

To start collecting logs data, you need to install Filebeat and configure the Filebeat modules directly from Kibana.

Alternatively, you can install Filebeat and configure the Filebeat modules yourself.

To install a Filebeat module from Kibana, on the machine where you want to collect the data, open a Kibana browser window. In the Observability section displayed on the home page of Kibana, click Add log data. Now follow the instructions for the type of data you want to collect. The instructions include how to install and configure Filebeat, and enable the appropriate Filebeat module for your data.

If your data source doesn’t have a Filebeat module, or if you want to install one the old fashioned way, follow the instructions in Filebeat modules quick start and enable modules for the logs you want to collect. If there is no module for the logs you want to collect, see the Filebeat getting started to learn how to configure inputs.

To start collecting logs data, you need to enable the appropriate modules in Filebeat.

To collect logs from your host system, enable:

To collect logs from Docker containers, enable:

To collect logs from Kubernetes pods, enable:

If your logs data has nonstandard fields, you may need to modify some configuration settings in Kibana, such as the index pattern used to query the data, and the timestamp field used for sorting. To modify configuration settings, use the Settings tab in the Logs app. Alternatively, see logs settings for a complete list of logs configuration settings.

If you’re monitoring Docker containers or Kubernetes pods, you can use autodiscovery to automatically change the configuration settings in response to changes in your containers. Autodiscovery ensures that even when your container configuration changes, data is still collected. To learn how to do this, see Filebeat autodiscover configuration.