Step 3: Set up and run Metricbeat

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

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

To install Metricbeat 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 metric data. Now follow the instructions for the type of data you want to collect. The instructions include how to install and configure Metricbeat, and enable the appropriate Metricbeat module for your data.

If your data source doesn’t have a Metricbeat module, or if you want to install one the old fashioned way, follow the instructions in Metricbeat getting started and enable modules for the metrics you want to collect.

To start collecting metrics data, to enable the appropriate modules in Metricbeat.

To populate the Hosts view with metrics data, enable:

To populate the Docker view with metrics data, enable:

To populate the Kubernetes view with metrics data, enable:

If your metrics 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 configurations, use the Settings tab tab in the Metrics app. Alternatively, see metrics settings for a complete list of metrics 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 Metricbeat autodiscover configuration