Collect the logs of an ECS instance

Procedure

1. Log on to the Elasticsearch console.
2. Navigate to the Beats Data Shippers page.
   1. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
   2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Beats Data Shippers.
   3. Optional:If this is the first time you go to the Beats Data Shippers page, click OK in the Confirm Service Authorization message to authorize the system to create a service-linked role for your account.
      

      Notice When Beats collects data from various data sources, it depends on the service-linked role and the rules specified for the role. Do not delete the service-linked role. Otherwise, the use of Beats is affected. For more information, see Overview of the Elasticsearch service-linked role.
3. Configure and enable a shipper to collect the logs of the ECS instance.
   Note In this example, a Filebeat shipper is used.
   1. In the Create Shipper section, move the pointer over Filebeat and click ECS Logs.
      

      Note For other types of shippers, you can directly click the shipper type. For example, to create a Metricbeat shipper, click Metricbeat.
   2. In the Configure Shipper step, configure the parameters. Then, click Next.
      

      Parameter	Description
      Shipper Name	The name of the shipper. The name must be 1 to 30 characters in length and can contain letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-). The name must start with a letter.
      Version	Set this parameter to 6.8.5, which is the only version supported by Filebeat.
      Output	Select a destination for the data collected by the shipper. The system provides Elasticsearch and Logstash clusters for you to select. If you select an Elasticsearch cluster, the protocol used for access must be the same as that of the cluster.
      Username/Password	If you select Elasticsearch for Output, enter the username and password used to access the destination Elasticsearch cluster. This way, the shipper can write data to the cluster. The default username is elastic. The password is specified when you create the cluster. If you forget the password, you can reset it. For more information about the procedure and precautions for resetting the password, see Reset the access password for an Elasticsearch cluster.
      Enable Kibana Monitoring	Specifies whether to monitor the metrics of the shipper. If you select Elasticsearch for Output, the Kibana monitor uses the same Elasticsearch cluster as Output. If you select Logstash for Output, you must configure a monitor in the configuration file of the destination Logstash cluster.
      Enable Kibana Dashboard	Specifies whether to enable the default Kibana dashboard. Alibaba Cloud Kibana is deployed in a VPC. You must enable the Private Network Access feature for Kibana on the Kibana Configuration page. For more information, see Configure a public or private IP address whitelist for Kibana.
      Filebeat Log File Path	This parameter is specific to Filebeat shippers. Alibaba Cloud deploys Beats with Docker. You must map the directory from which logs are collected to Docker. The directory that you specify must be consistent with the value of input.path in filebeat.yml. If you want to collect logs from a multi-level directory, you need only to specify one level in the directory. If the name of a level in the directory contains an asterisk (*), you do not need to enter the name of this level when you configure the Filebeat Log File Path parameter. For example, if you want to collect logs from the /var/log/*/*.log directory and you specify input.path:/var/log/*/*.log in filebeat.yml, you need only to enter /var/ or /var/log/ when you configure the Filebeat Log File Path parameter. Notice If you want to collect logs from multiple directories, click Add, enter the directory from which you want to collect logs, and then add the directory to the value of the paths parameter in Shipper YML Configuration.
      Shipper YML Configuration	The YML configuration file of the shipper. You can modify the configuration file based on your business requirements. For more information, see Prepare the YML configuration files for a shipper.

      Notice

      • If you already configure Output, you do not need to specify the destination again in Shipper YML Configuration. Otherwise, the system reports a shipper installation error.
      • Alibaba Cloud Filebeat does not allow you to customize index names. By default, the system creates indexes whose names are in the filebeat-%{[agent.version]}-%{+yyyy.MM.dd} format, such as filebeat-6.8.5-2021-12-11.
   3. Optional:If this is the first time you go to the Install Shipper step, click Authorize Now. On the Cloud Resource Access Authorization page, click Agree to Authorization.

      In the Install Shipper step, click Authorize Now to authorize the selected Elasticsearch cluster to access ECS instances.

      

      On the Cloud Resource Access Authorization page, click Agree to Authorization.

      Notice

      • The authorization service is provided by the Resource Access Management (RAM) service. After you confirm the authorization, the system automatically creates the system roles AliyunElasticsearchAccessingOOSRole and AliyunOOSAccessingECS4ESRole. The default system policy for AliyunElasticsearchAccessingOOSRole is AliyunElasticsearchAccessingOOSRolePolicy, and that for AliyunOOSAccessingECS4ESRole is AliyunOOSAccessingECS4ESRolePolicy. Do not delete the system roles and policies during the use of Beats.
      • If the system roles or policies are deleted, you can go to the Cloud Resource Access Authorization page to perform authorization again.
   4. In the Install Shipper step, select the ECS instance on which you want to install the shipper.
      

      Notice All the ECS instances within your account that reside in the same VPC as the Elasticsearch or Logstash cluster selected for Output are displayed. A shipper can be installed only on an ECS instance on which Cloud Assistant and Docker are installed.
   5. Click Enable.
   6. In the Enable Shipper dialog box, click Back to Beats Shippers. In the Manage Shippers section of the Beats Data Shippers page, view the newly created shipper.
      After the value of Status for the shipper changes to Enabled, the shipper is created. The two numbers that follow Enabled indicate the number of ECS instances on which the shipper is installed and the total number of ECS instances on which you want to install the shipper. If the shipper is installed on all ECS instances, the two numbers are the same.
4. View the running ECS instance.
   After the shipper is created, you can view the running ECS instance to check whether shipper installation on the ECS instance succeeds and handle exceptions as prompted.
   1. In the Manage Shippers section, find the shipper that you created and click View Instances in the Actions column.
   2. In the View Instances panel, check whether the shipper installation on the ECS instance succeeds.
      The Installed Shippers column provides the value Heartbeat Normal, Heartbeat Abnormal, or Installation Failed to indicate whether the shipper installation on an ECS instance succeeds. If the value of Installed Shippers is Heartbeat Abnormal or Installation Failed, you can remove the instance or retry the installation on the instance. If the retry fails, you can troubleshoot the issue based on the instructions provided in Installation failures of Beats shippers.
   3. Click Add Instance to add the ECS instances on which you want to install the created shipper.
5. Optional:View monitoring and dashboard information.
   If you select Enable Kibana Monitoring or Enable Kibana Dashboard in the Configure Shipper step, you can view the monitoring information or dashboards in the Kibana console of the destination Elasticsearch cluster after the shipper is started.
   1. In the Manage Shippers section, find the shipper that you created and choose More > Dashboard in the Actions column.
   2. On the logon page of the Kibana console, enter the username and password, and click Log in.
   3. In the left-side navigation pane, click Dashboard and click a metric whose dashboard you want to view. Then, you can view the dashboard of the metric.
      
   4. In the left-side navigation pane, click Monitoring and select a monitoring item whose information you want to view. Then, you can view the information of the monitoring item.
      

FAQ

How do I use a Filebeat shipper to collect logs from multiple directories?

When you configure the Filebeat Log File Path parameter for your Filebeat shipper, click Add, enter the directory from which you want to collect logs, and then add the directory to the value of the paths parameter in Shipper YML Configuration.

References

API operation for creating a shipper: CreateCollector