Configuring Filebeatedit

Before modifying configuration settings, make sure you’ve completed the configuration steps in the Getting Started. This section describes some common use cases for changing configuration options.

To configure Filebeat, you edit the configuration file. For rpm and deb, you’ll find the configuration file at /etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml. There’s also a full example configuration file at /etc/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml that shows all non-deprecated options. For mac and win, look in the archive that you extracted.

The Filebeat configuration file uses YAML for its syntax. See the Config File Format section of the Beats Platform Reference for more about the structure of the config file.

Starting with Filebeat 6.5, you can define and manage Filebeat configurations in a central location in Kibana. For more information, see Beats central management.

The following topics describe how to configure Filebeat: