Step 2: Set up and configureedit

This method of installing APM Server will be deprecated and removed in a future release. Please consider getting started with the Elastic APM integration instead.

Elastic Cloudedit

If you’re running APM in Elastic cloud, see Add APM user settings for information on how to configure Elastic APM.

Self installationedit

Starting in version 8.0.0, Fleet uses the APM integration to set up and manage APM index templates, ILM policies, and ingest pipelines. APM Server will only send data to Elasticsearch after the APM integration has been installed.

Install the APM integrationedit

An internet connection is required to install the APM integration. If your environment has network traffic restrictions, there are ways to work around this requirement. See Air-gapped environments for more information.

  1. Open Kibana and select Add integrations > Elastic APM.
  2. Click APM integration.
  3. Click Add Elastic APM.
  4. Click Save and continue.
  5. Click Add Elastic Agent later. You do not need to run an Elastic Agent to complete the setup.
Configure APMedit

Configure APM by editing the apm-server.yml configuration file. The location of this file varies by platform—​see the Directory layout for help locating it.

A minimal configuration file might look like this:

apm-server:
  host: "localhost:8200" 
output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["localhost:9200"] 
  username: "elastic" 
  password: "changeme" 

The host:port APM Server listens on.

The Elasticsearch host:port to connect to.

This example uses basic authentication. The user provided here needs the privileges required to publish events to Elasticsearch. To create a dedicated user for this role, see Create a writer user.

We’ve hard-coded the password here, but you should store sensitive values in the secrets keystore.

All available configuration options are outlined in configuring APM Server.