Elastic Agent input plugin

The input-elastic_agent plugin is the next generation of the input-beats plugin. They currently share code and a common codebase.

  • Plugin version: v6.8.2
  • Released on: 2024-03-13
  • Changelog

For other versions, see the Versioned plugin docs.

Getting Help

For questions about the plugin, open a topic in the Discuss forums. For bugs or feature requests, open an issue in Github. For the list of Elastic supported plugins, please consult the Elastic Support Matrix.

Description

This input plugin enables Logstash to receive events from the Elastic Agent framework.

The following example shows how to configure Logstash to listen on port 5044 for incoming Elastic Agent connections and to index into Elasticsearch.

input {
  elastic_agent {
    port => 5044
  }
}

output {
  elasticsearch {
    hosts => ["http://localhost:9200"]
    data_stream => "true"
  }
}

Events indexed into Elasticsearch with the Logstash configuration shown here will be similar to events directly indexed by Elastic Agent into Elasticsearch.

Memory usage

This plugin uses "off-heap" direct memory in addition to heap memory. By default, a JVM’s off-heap direct memory limit is the same as the heap size. For example, setting -Xmx10G without setting the direct memory limit will allocate 10GB for heap and an additional 10GB for direct memory, for a total of 20GB allocated. You can set the amount of direct memory with -XX:MaxDirectMemorySize in Logstash JVM Settings. Consider setting direct memory to half of the heap size. Setting direct memory too low decreases the performance of ingestion.

Be sure that heap and direct memory combined does not exceed the total memory available on the server to avoid an OutOfDirectMemoryError

Event enrichment and the Elastic Common Schema (ECS)

When decoding Elastic Agent events, this plugin enriches each event with metadata about the event’s source, making this information available during further processing. You can use the enrich option to activate or deactivate individual enrichment categories.

The location of these enrichment fields depends on whether ECS compatibility mode is enabled:

  • When ECS compatibility is enabled, enrichment fields are added in an ECS-compatible structure.
  • When ECS compatibility is disabled, enrichment fields are added in a way that is backward-compatible with this plugin, but is known to clash with the Elastic Common Schema.

Enrichment category:source_metadata

ECS `v1`, `v8` ECS `disabled` Description

[@metadata][input][beats][host][name]

[host]

Name or address of the Elastic Agent host

[@metadata][input][beats][host][ip]

[@metadata][ip_address]

IP address of the Elastic Agent client that connected to this input

Enrichment category:ssl_peer_metadata

ECS `v1`, `v8` ECS `disabled` Description

[@metadata][tls_peer][status]

[@metadata][tls_peer][status]

Contains "verified" or "unverified" label; available when SSL is enabled.

[@metadata][input][beats][tls][version_protocol]

[@metadata][tls_peer][protocol]

Contains the TLS version used (such as TLSv1.2); available when SSL status is "verified"

[@metadata][input][beats][tls][client][subject]

[@metadata][tls_peer][subject]

Contains the identity name of the remote end (such as CN=artifacts-no-kpi.elastic.co); available when SSL status is "verified"

[@metadata][input][beats][tls][cipher]

[@metadata][tls_peer][cipher_suite]

Contains the name of cipher suite used (such as TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256); available when SSL status is "verified"

Enrichment category:codec_metadata

ECS `v1`, `v8` ECS `disabled` Description

[tag]

[tag]

Contains beats_input_codec_XXX_applied where XXX is the name of the codec

[event][original]

N/A

When ECS is enabled, even if [event][original] field does not already exist on the event being processed, this plugin’s default codec ensures that the field is populated using the bytes as-processed.

Elastic Agent input configuration options

This plugin supports the following configuration options plus the Common Options described later.

Setting Input type Required

add_hostname

boolean

Deprecated

cipher_suites

array

Deprecated

client_inactivity_timeout

number

No

ecs_compatibility

string

No

enrich

string

No

event_loop_threads

number

No

executor_threads

number

No

host

string

No

include_codec_tag

boolean

Deprecated

port

number

Yes

ssl

boolean

Deprecated

ssl_certificate

a valid filesystem path

No

ssl_certificate_authorities

array

No

ssl_cipher_suites

array

No

ssl_client_authentication

string, one of ["none", "optional", "required"]

No

ssl_enabled

boolean

No

ssl_handshake_timeout

number

No

ssl_key

a valid filesystem path

No

ssl_key_passphrase

password

No

ssl_peer_metadata

boolean

Deprecated

ssl_supported_protocols

array

No

ssl_verify_mode

string, one of ["none", "peer", "force_peer"]

Deprecated

tls_max_version

number

Deprecated

tls_min_version

number

Deprecated

Also see Common Options for a list of options supported by all input plugins.

 

add_hostname

Deprecated in 6.0.0.

The default value has been changed to false. In 7.0.0 this setting will be removed

  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is false

Flag to determine whether to add host field to event using the value supplied by the Elastic Agent in the hostname field.

cipher_suites

Deprecated in 6.4.0.

Replaced by ssl_cipher_suites

The list of cipher suites to use, listed by priorities.

client_inactivity_timeout

  • Value type is number
  • Default value is 60

Close Idle clients after X seconds of inactivity.

ecs_compatibility

  • Value type is string
  • Supported values are:

    • disabled: unstructured connection metadata added at root level
    • v1: structured connection metadata added under ECS v1 compliant namespaces
    • v8: structured connection metadata added under ECS v8 compliant namespaces
  • Default value depends on which version of Logstash is running:

    • When Logstash provides a pipeline.ecs_compatibility setting, its value is used as the default
    • Otherwise, the default value is disabled.

Refer to ECS mapping for detailed information.

enrich

  • Value type is string

    • An array can also be provided
    • Configures which enrichments are applied to each event
    • Default value is [codec_metadata, source_metadata] that may be extended in future versions of this plugin to include additional enrichments.
    • Supported values are:

      Enrichment Description

      codec_metadata

      Information about how the codec transformed a sequence of bytes into this Event, such as which codec was used. Also, if no codec is explicitly specified, excluding codec_metadata from enrich will disable ecs_compatibility for this plugin.

      source_metadata

      Information about the source of the event, such as the IP address of the inbound connection this input received the event from

      ssl_peer_metadata

      Detailed information about the SSL peer we received the event from, such as identity information from the SSL client certificate that was presented when establishing a connection to this input

      all

      alias to include all available enrichments (including additional enrichments introduced in future versions of this plugin)

      none

      alias to exclude all available enrichments. Note that, explicitly defining codec with this option will not disable the ecs_compatibility, instead it relies on pipeline or codec ecs_compatibility configuration.

Example:

This configuration disables all enrichments:

input {
  beats {
    port => 5044
    enrich => none
  }
}

Or, to explicitly enable only source_metadata and ssl_peer_metadata (disabling all others):

input {
  beats {
    port => 5044
    enrich => [source_metadata, ssl_peer_metadata]
  }
}

event_loop_threads

  • Value type is number
  • Defaults to 0.

When setting 0, the actual default is available_processors * 2

This is an expert-level setting, and generally should not need to be set Elastic Agent plugin is implemented based on a non-blocking mechanism, requiring a number of event loop and executor threads. The event loop threads are responsible to communicate with clients (accept incoming connections, enqueue/dequeue tasks and respond) and executor threads handle tasks. This configuration intends to limit or increase the number of threads to be created for the event loop. See executor_threads configuration if you need to set executor threads count.

executor_threads

  • Value type is number
  • Default value is equal to the number of CPU cores (1 executor thread per CPU core).

The number of threads to be used to process incoming Elastic Agent requests. By default, the Elastic Agent input creates a number of threads equal to the number of CPU cores. These threads handle incoming connections, reading from established sockets, and executing most of the tasks related to network connection management. Parsing the Lumberjack protocol is offloaded to a dedicated thread pool.

Generally you don’t need to touch this setting. In case you are sending very large events and observing "OutOfDirectMemory" exceptions, you may want to reduce this number to half or 1/4 of the CPU cores. This change reduces the number of threads decompressing batches of data into direct memory. However, this will only be a mitigating tweak, as the proper solution may require resizing your Logstash deployment, either by increasing number of Logstash nodes or increasing the JVM’s Direct Memory.

host

  • Value type is string
  • Default value is "0.0.0.0"

The IP address to listen on.

include_codec_tag

Deprecated in 6.5.0.

Replaced by enrich

  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is true

port

  • This is a required setting.
  • Value type is number
  • There is no default value for this setting.

The port to listen on.

ssl

Deprecated in 6.6.0.

Replaced by ssl_enabled

  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is false

Events are by default sent in plain text. You can enable encryption by setting ssl to true and configuring the ssl_certificate and ssl_key options.

ssl_certificate

  • Value type is path
  • There is no default value for this setting.

SSL certificate to use.

ssl_certificate_authorities

  • Value type is array
  • Default value is []

Validate client certificates against these authorities. You can define multiple files or paths. All the certificates will be read and added to the trust store. You need to configure the ssl_client_authentication to optional or required to enable the verification.

ssl_cipher_suites

  • Value type is array
  • Default value is ['TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384', 'TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256', 'TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256', 'TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384', 'TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384', 'TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256', 'TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256', 'TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256', 'TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256', 'TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384', 'TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384', 'TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256', 'TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256']

The list of cipher suites to use, listed by priorities. This default list applies for OpenJDK 11.0.14 and higher. For older JDK versions, the default list includes only suites supported by that version. For example, the ChaCha20 family of ciphers is not supported in older versions.

ssl_client_authentication

  • Value can be any of: none, optional, required
  • Default value is "none"

Controls the server’s behavior in regard to requesting a certificate from client connections: required forces a client to present a certificate, while optional requests a client certificate but the client is not required to present one. Defaults to none, which disables the client authentication.

When mutual TLS is enabled (required or optional), the certificate presented by the client must be signed by trusted ssl_certificate_authorities (CAs). Please note that the server does not validate the client certificate CN (Common Name) or SAN (Subject Alternative Name).

This setting can be used only if ssl_certificate_authorities is set.

ssl_enabled

  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is false

Events are by default sent in plain text. You can enable encryption by setting ssl_enabled to true and configuring the ssl_certificate and ssl_key options.

ssl_handshake_timeout

  • Value type is number
  • Default value is 10000

Time in milliseconds for an incomplete ssl handshake to timeout

ssl_key

  • Value type is path
  • There is no default value for this setting.

SSL key to use. This key must be in the PKCS8 format and PEM encoded. You can use the openssl pkcs8 command to complete the conversion. For example, the command to convert a PEM encoded PKCS1 private key to a PEM encoded, non-encrypted PKCS8 key is:

openssl pkcs8 -inform PEM -in path/to/logstash.key -topk8 -nocrypt -outform PEM -out path/to/logstash.pkcs8.key

ssl_key_passphrase

  • Value type is password
  • There is no default value for this setting.

SSL key passphrase to use.

ssl_peer_metadata

Deprecated in 6.5.0.

Replaced by enrich

  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is false

Enables storing client certificate information in event’s metadata.

This option is only valid when ssl_client_authentication is set to optional or required.

ssl_supported_protocols

  • Value type is array
  • Allowed values are: 'TLSv1.1', 'TLSv1.2', 'TLSv1.3'
  • Default depends on the JDK being used. With up-to-date Logstash, the default is ['TLSv1.2', 'TLSv1.3']. 'TLSv1.1' is not considered secure and is only provided for legacy applications.

List of allowed SSL/TLS versions to use when establishing a connection to the HTTP endpoint.

For Java 8 'TLSv1.3' is supported only since 8u262 (AdoptOpenJDK), but requires that you set the LS_JAVA_OPTS="-Djdk.tls.client.protocols=TLSv1.3" system property in Logstash.

If you configure the plugin to use 'TLSv1.1' on any recent JVM, such as the one packaged with Logstash, the protocol is disabled by default and needs to be enabled manually by changing jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms in the $JDK_HOME/conf/security/java.security configuration file. That is, TLSv1.1 needs to be removed from the list.

ssl_verify_mode

Deprecated in 6.6.0.

Replaced by ssl_client_authentication

  • Value can be any of: none, peer, force_peer
  • Default value is "none"

By default, the server doesn’t do any client verification. If the ssl_certificate_authorities is configured, and no value or none is provided for this option, it defaults to force_peer instead of none.

peer will make the server ask the client to provide a certificate. If the client provides a certificate, it will be validated.

force_peer will make the server ask the client to provide a certificate. If the client doesn’t provide a certificate, the connection will be closed.

When mutual TLS is enabled (peer or force_peer), the certificate presented by the client must be signed by trusted ssl_certificate_authorities (CAs). Please note that the server does not validate the client certificate CN (Common Name) or SAN (Subject Alternative Name).

This setting can be used only if ssl_certificate_authorities is set.

tls_max_version

Deprecated in 6.4.0.

Replaced by ssl_supported_protocols

The maximum TLS version allowed for the encrypted connections. The value must be the one of the following: 1.1 for TLS 1.1, 1.2 for TLS 1.2, 1.3 for TLSv1.3

tls_min_version

Deprecated in 6.4.0.

Replaced by ssl_supported_protocols

The minimum TLS version allowed for the encrypted connections. The value must be one of the following: 1.1 for TLS 1.1, 1.2 for TLS 1.2, 1.3 for TLS 1.3

Common Options

The following configuration options are supported by all input plugins:

Setting Input type Required

add_field

hash

No

codec

codec

No

enable_metric

boolean

No

id

string

No

tags

array

No

type

string

No

Details

 

add_field

  • Value type is hash
  • Default value is {}

Add a field to an event

codec

  • Value type is codec
  • Default value is "plain"

The codec used for input data. Input codecs are a convenient method for decoding your data before it enters the input, without needing a separate filter in your Logstash pipeline.

enable_metric

  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is true

Disable or enable metric logging for this specific plugin instance by default we record all the metrics we can, but you can disable metrics collection for a specific plugin.

id

  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Add a unique ID to the plugin configuration. If no ID is specified, Logstash will generate one. It is strongly recommended to set this ID in your configuration. This is particularly useful when you have two or more plugins of the same type, for example, if you have 2 elastic_agent inputs. Adding a named ID in this case will help in monitoring Logstash when using the monitoring APIs.

input {
  elastic_agent {
    id => "my_plugin_id"
  }
}

Variable substitution in the id field only supports environment variables and does not support the use of values from the secret store.

tags

  • Value type is array
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Add any number of arbitrary tags to your event.

This can help with processing later.

type

  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Add a type field to all events handled by this input.

Types are used mainly for filter activation.

The type is stored as part of the event itself, so you can also use the type to search for it in Kibana.

If you try to set a type on an event that already has one (for example when you send an event from a shipper to an indexer) then a new input will not override the existing type. A type set at the shipper stays with that event for its life even when sent to another Logstash server.