Kafka

Collect and ship topics from Kafka message queue to Logstash and Elasticsearch

Filebeat is a lightweight shipper that enables you to send your Apache Kafka message queue logs to Logstash and Elasticsearch. Configure Filebeat using the pre-defined examples below to start sending and analysing your Apache Kafka message queue logs.

Step 1 - Install filebeat

First we need to install Filebeat. The Apache Kafka input being used is only available in version 7.4 Filebeat onwards.

deb (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/oss-7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install filebeat

rpm (Redhat/Centos)

sudo rpm --import https://packages.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch
echo "[elastic-6.x]
name=Elastic repository for 6.x packages
baseurl=https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/6.x/yum
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch
enabled=1
autorefresh=1
type=rpm-md" | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/elastic-beats.repo

sudo yum install filebeat

sudo chkconfig --add filebeat

Windows

Download the filebeat Windows zip file from the official downloads page.
Extract the contents of the zip file into C:\Program Files.
Rename the filebeat-<version>-windows directory to filebeat.
Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator (right-click the PowerShell icon and select Run As Administrator). If you are running Windows XP, you may need to download and install PowerShell.

Run the following commands to install filebeat as a Windows service:

PS > cd 'C:\Program Files\filebeat'
PS C:\Program Files\filebeat> .\install-service-filebeat.ps1

Security warning
Run only scripts that you trust. While scripts from the internet can be useful,
this script can potentially harm your computer. If you trust this script, use
the Unblock-File cmdlet to allow the script to run without this warning message.
Do you want to run C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat\install-service-filebeat.ps1?
[D] Do not run  [R] Run once  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "D"): R

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  filebeat           filebeat

If script execution is disabled on your system, you need to set the execution policy for the current session to allow the script to run. For example: PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted -File .\install-service-filebeat.ps1.

My OS isn't here! Don't see your system? Check out the official downloads page for more options (including 32-bit versions).

Step 2 - Locate configuration file

deb/rpm /etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml
win <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>/filebeat.yml

Step 3 - Configure output

We'll be shipping to Logstash so that we have the option to run filters before the data is indexed.
Comment out the elasticsearch output block.

## Comment out elasticsearch output
#output.elasticsearch:
#  hosts: ["localhost:9200"]

Uncomment and change the logstash output to match below.

output.logstash:
    hosts: ["your-logstash-host:your-port"]
    loadbalance: true
    ssl.enabled: true

Step 4 - Enable Kafka Input

We need to specify the Kafka input details. In the configuration file locate the filebeat.inputs section and edit your config to look similar to the below.

filebeat.inputs:
- type: kafka
  hosts:
    - name-of-your-broker:your-broker-port
  # - localhost:9092        (Example)
  topics: ["name-of-your-topic", "name-of-another-topic"]
  group_id: "filebeat"

Step 5 - Validate configuration

Let's check the configuration file is syntactically correct.

deb/rpm

sudo filebeat -e -c /etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml

Windows

cd <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>
filebeat.exe -e -c filebeat.yml

Step 6 - Start filebeat

Ok, time to start ingesting data!

deb/rpm

sudo systemctl enable filebeat
sudo systemctl start filebeat

Windows

Start-Service filebeat

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