Getting started with the ELK Stack monitoring solution
Elk Hunting
© Photo by David Santoyo on Unsplash
ELK Stack is a powerful monitoring system known for efficient log management and versatile visualization. This hands-on workshop will help you take your first steps with setting up your own ELK Stack monitoring solution.
Today's networks require a monitoring solution with industrial-strength log management and analytics. One option that has gained popularity in recent years is ELK stack [1]. The free and open source ELK Stack collection is maintained by a company called Elastic. (According to the website, the company has recently changed the name of the project to Elastic Stack, but the previous name is still in common usage.) ELK Stack is not a single tool but a collection of tools (Figure 1). The ELK acronym highlights the importance of the collection's three most important utilities. At the heart of the stack, Elasticsearch collects and maintains data, providing an engine, based on Apache Lucene, for searching through it. Logstash serves as the log processing pipeline, collecting data from a multitude of sources, transforming it, then sending it to a chosen "stash." (Keep in mind that, despite its name, Logstash itself does not preserve any data.) Kibana provides a user-friendly interface for querying and visualizing the data.
Figure 1: The ELK family and its relatives.
A bundle of tiny apps called beats specialize in collecting data and feeding it to Logstash or Elasticsearch. The beats include:
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
-
LMDE 7 Now Available
Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Reaches EOL
Linux kernel 6.16 has reached its end of life, which means you'll need to upgrade to the next stable release, Linux kernel 6.17.
-
Amazon Ditches Android for a Linux-Based OS
Amazon has migrated from Android to the Linux-based Vega OS for its Fire TV.
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.