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nginx_json_plus_logs

README.md

Community Contribution

Contributed by Kunal Pariani from NGINX

If you have trouble running the example or have suggestions for improvement, please create a Github issue and copy Kunal Pariani @kunalvjti in it.

Getting Started with the Elastic Stack for NGINX Plus (JSON) Logs

This Getting Started with Elastic Stack example provides sample files to ingest, analyze & visualize Nginx Plus logs obtained from its status API using the Elastic Stack, i.e. Elasticsearch, Filebeat and Kibana. The logs obtained from the status API are in JSON format.

This example historically used Logstash for ingestion. Per recommended best practices this is now achieved with Filebeat. The Logstash configuration is provided for reference only.

Versions:

Example has been tested with following versions:

  • Elasticsearch 6.0
  • Filebeat 6.0
  • Kibana 6.0

Example Contents

Legacy Files:

Installation & Setup

  • Follow the Installation & Setup Guide to install and test the Elastic Stack (you can skip this step if you have a working installation of the Elastic Stack,)

  • Run Elasticsearch & Kibana

    <path_to_elasticsearch_root_dir>/bin/elasticsearch
<path_to_kibana_root_dir>/bin/kibana

  • Check that Elasticsearch and Kibana are up and running.

    • Open localhost:9200 in web browser -- should return status code 200
    • Open localhost:5601 in web browser -- should display Kibana UI.

    Note: By default, Elasticsearch runs on port 9200, and Kibana run on ports 5601. If you changed the default ports during/after installation, change the above calls to use appropriate ports.

  • Download and install Filebeat as described here. Do not start Filebeat

Download Example Files

Download the following files in this repo to a local directory:

  • nginxplus_json_logs - sample JSON formatted Nginx Plus logs from its status API
  • nginxplus_filebeat.yml - Filebeat config for ingesting data into Elasticsearch
  • nginxplus_json_template.json - template for custom mapping of fields
  • nginxplus_json_kibana.json - config file to load prebuilt Kibana dashboard
  • nginxplus_json_pipeline.json - Ingestion pipeline

Unfortunately, Github does not provide a convenient one-click option to download entire contents of a subfolder in a repo. Use sample code provided below to download the required files to a local directory:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/examples/master/Common%20Data%20Formats/nginx_json_plus_logs/nginxplus_filebeat.yml
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/examples/master/Common%20Data%20Formats/nginx_json_plus_logs/nginxplus_json_kibana.json
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/examples/master/Common%20Data%20Formats/nginx_json_plus_logs/nginxplus_json_template.json
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/examples/master/Common%20Data%20Formats/nginx_json_plus_logs/nginxplus_json_pipeline.json
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/examples/master/Common%20Data%20Formats/nginx_json_plus_logs/nginxplus_json_logs

** The JSON formatted logs used in this example were created using status API of NGINX Plus. Please refer to Live activity monitoring with NGINX Plus for more information on how to use status API of NGINX Plus

Run Example

1. Ingest data into Elasticsearch using Filebeat

  • Move the file nginx_json_filebeat.yml to the Filebeat installation directory i.e.

    mv nginxplus_filebeat.yml <filebeat_installation_dir>/nginxplus_filebeat.yml

  • Install the ingest pipeline

    curl -XPUT -H 'Content-Type: application/json' 'localhost:9200/_ingest/pipeline/nginxplus_json_pipeline' -d @nginxplus_json_pipeline.json

  • Install the Elasticsearch template

    curl -XPUT -H 'Content-Type: application/json' 'localhost:9200/_template/nginxplus_json' -d @nginxplus_json_template.json

  • Start Filebeat to begin ingesting data to Elasticsearch, modifying the command below to point to your Elasticsearch instance and the sample log file nginxplus_json_logs. Ingestion should take around a few seconds.

    cd <filebeat_installation_dir>
./filebeat -e -c nginxplus_filebeat.yml -E "output.elasticsearch.hosts=["localhost:9200"]" -E "filebeat.prospectors.0.paths=["<path to nginxplus_json_logs>"]"
``

  • Verify that data is successfully indexed into Elasticsearch

Running http://localhost:9200/nginxplus_json/_count should return a response a "count":500

2. Visualize data in Kibana
  • Access Kibana by going to http://localhost:5601 in a web browser
  • Connect Kibana to the nginxplus_json index in Elasticsearch (auto-created in step 1)
    • Click the Management tab >> Index Patterns tab >> Add New. Specify nginxplus_json as the index pattern name and click Create to define the index pattern, using the @timestamp field as the Time-Field.
    • If this is the only index pattern declared, you will also need to select the star in the top upper right to ensure a default is defined.
  • Load sample dashboard into Kibana
    • Click the Settings tab >> Saved Objects tab >> Import, and select nginxplus_json_kibana.json
    • On import you will be asked to overwrite existing objects - select "Yes, overwrite all". Additionally, select the index pattern "nginxplus_json" when asked to specify a index pattern for the dashboards.
  • Open dashboard
    • Click on Dashboard tab and open NginxPlus: Sample Dashboard dashboard

Voila! You should see the following dashboard. Enjoy! Kibana Dashboard Screenshot