Configure Filebeat to use X-Pack securityedit

If you want Filebeat to connect to a cluster that has X-Pack security enabled, there are extra configuration steps:

  1. Configure authentication credentials.

    To send data to a secured cluster through the elasticsearch output, Filebeat needs to authenticate as a user who can manage index templates, monitor the cluster, create indices, read and write to the indices it creates, and manage ingest pipelines.

  2. Grant users access to Filebeat indices.

    To search the indexed Filebeat data and visualize it in Kibana, users need access to the indices Filebeat creates.

  3. Configure Filebeat to use encrypted connections.

    If encryption is enabled on the cluster, you need to enable HTTPS in the Filebeat configuration.

  4. Set the password for the built-in monitoring user.

    Filebeat uses the beats_system user to send monitoring data to Elasticsearch. If you plan to monitor Filebeat in Kibana and have not yet set up the password, set it up now.

For more information about X-Pack security, see Security overview.