Metricbeat Role

Summary

This role:

• installs metricbeat on Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Windows
• copies prepared configuration file (log path, connect to elasticsearch, etc.)

Role tasks

• Prepare server (add elastic repo)
• [Optional] Create folder(s) for custom paths
• Install metricbeat
• Copy configuration file

Requirements

• Minimal Version of the ansible for installation: 2.7
• Supported OS:
  • EL (RedHat, CentOS)
    • 7, 8
  • Ubuntu
    • 16.04
    • 18.04
  • Debian
    • 8, 9
  • Windows Server
    • 2016, 2019

Role Variables

You can override any variable below by setting "variable: value" in playbook.

• metricbeat_version Is used to select main Metricbeat branch to be installed (5.x or 6.x current stable versions). Default value is 6.
• metricbeat_last_version Is used to select specific Metricbeat version to be installed. Default value is 6.6.0
• elastic_gpg_key GPG-key from elasticsearch repository. Default value is https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch
• metricbeat_node_name Name of the metricbeat node. Default value is {{ inventory_hostname }}. If this options is not defined, the hostname is used.
• metricbeat_ssl_enabled Turns on/off SSL connection between metricbeat and logstash/elasticsearch. SSL options should be set by corresponding dict fields like shown below:

  ssl:
    key: "/etc/pki/tls/private/server.key"
    certificate: "/etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt"
    certificate_authorities: "/etc/pki/CA/ca-root.pem"

in case of Windows setup:

 ssl:
   key: 'c:\tls\private\server.key'
   certificate: 'c:\tls\certs\server.pem'
   certificate_authorities: 'c:\CA\ca-root.pem'

The path section of the configuration options defines where Metricbeat looks for its files. For example, Metricbeat looks for the Elasticsearch template file in the configuration path and writes log files in the logs path. Metricbeat looks for its registry files in the data path. Default values for Linux host are set up this way:

path:
  home: /usr/share/metricbeat
  config: /etc/metricbeat
  data: /var/lib/metricbeat
  logs: /var/log/metricbeat

in case of Windows setup default paths look like:

path:
  home: 'c:\program files\metricbeat'
  config: 'c:\program files\metricbeat'
  data: 'c:\programdata\metricbeat'
  logs: 'c:\programdata\metricbeat\logs'

• win_download_path Temp directory for Windows to download and upzip Metricbeat package. Default value is '{{ ansible_env.TEMP }}/metricbeat' (ansible_env.TEMP value solves idempotence issue)

• input_logpath Path to log files.

Default value for *NIX OS family is "/var/log/*.log"

Default value for WIN OS family is 'c:\windows\*.log'

Output customization:

• metricbeat_output Is used to configure what output to use when sending data (elasticsearch or logstash). Default value is elasticsearch

• elasticsearch.host Array of hosts to connect to. Default value is localhost

• elasticsearch.port Value for setting custom port. Default value is 9200

• logstash.host Array of hosts to connect to. Default value is localhost

• logstash.port Value for setting custom port. Default value is 5044

Advanced config parameters:

The metricbeat(systemd)\initd section of the configuration options defines which init script will be used to manage metricbeat service depending on the *nix OS. Custom paths will be taken into account (if configured).

• metricbeat_service_name Name of nssm\init script, which manages metricbeat service

• metricbeat_bulk_max_size Maximum number of events to bulk in a single Logstash request. Default value is 500

• metricbeat_worker Number of workers per Elasticsearch host. Default value is 1

• metricbeat_logging_to_syslog Send all logging output to syslog. Default value is false

• metricbeat_logging_to_files Send all logging output to rotating files. Default value is true

• metricbeat_rotateeverybytes Defines log file size limit. Defalt value is 104857600 = 100MB

• metricbeat_keepfiles Number of log files to keep. Default value is 30

• metricbeat_ignore_older Value (any time strings like 2h, 5m can be used) above which files will be ignored. Default value is 0 (disabled)

• metricbeat_scan_frequency Defines how often metricbeat checks file updates. Default value is 15s

• metricbeat_harvester_buffer_size Defines the buffer size. Default value is 65535

• metricbeat_logname Name of the logging files. Default value is "metricbeat.log"

Dependencies

---

ca-cert (only for installation with SSL)

Example Playbook

Installing Metricbeat 6.x version:

- name: Install metricbeat
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - role: ansible-role-metricbeat

Installing Metricbeat 6.x version with custom elasticsearch output:

- name: Install metricbeat
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - role: ansible-role-metricbeat
  vars:
    elasticsearch:
      host: elasticsearch.example.com
      port: 9200

License

Apache

Author Information

authors:

• Lean Delivery Team [email protected]