Windows Service Metrics

Collect and ship Windows services & performance counter metrics to Logstash and Elasticsearch.

Metricbeat is a lightweight shipper that helps you monitor your Windows server by collecting metrics from services and performance counters running on the Windows server. Configure Metricbeat using the pre-defined examples below to collect and ship metrics about Windows services to Logstash or Elasticsearch.

Step 1 - Install Metricbeat

First we need to install Metricbeat. Windows

Download the Metricbeat Windows zip file from the official downloads page.
Extract the contents of the zip file into C:\Program Files.
Rename the metricbeat-<version>-windows directory to Metricbeat.
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 Metricbeat as a Windows service:

PS > cd 'C:\Program Files\Metricbeat'
PS C:\Program Files\Metricbeat> .\install-service-metricbeat.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-metricbeat.ps1?
[D] Do not run  [R] Run once  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "D"): R

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  metricbeat         metricbeat

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-metricbeat.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

<EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>/metricbeat.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-ssl-port"] loadbalance: true ssl.enabled: true

Step 4 - Enable module

There are several built in metricbeat modules you can use. To enable the system on Windows, run the following:

PS > .\metricbeat.exe modules enable windows

Step 5 - Configure module

Each module has its own configuration file where different metricsets can be enabled / disabled. Locate the configuration file for the system module. <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>/modules.d/windows.yml

By default the following metrics are enabled. To enable or disable a metric simply comment or uncomment the line out.

- module: windows #metricsets: # - service period: 1m #- module: windows # metricsets: # - perfmon

The perfmon metricset of the Windows module reads Windows performance counters. The service metricset of the Windows module reads the status of Windows services.

Step 6 - Start Metricbeat

Ok, time to start ingesting data!

PS C:\Program Files\Metricbeat> Start-Service metricbeat

Step 7 - Windows module dashboard

The Windows module comes with a predefined Kibana dashboard. To view your dashboards for any of your Logit stacks, launch Kibana and choose Dashboards.

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