[[breaking-changes]] == Breaking changes As a general rule, we strive to keep backwards compatibility between minor versions (e.g. 6.x to 6.y) so you can upgrade without any configuration file changes, but there are breaking changes between major versions (e.g. 5.x to 6.y). Migrating directly between non consecutive major versions (e.g. 1.x to 6.x) is not recommended. [[breaking-changes-6.0]] === Breaking changes in 6.0 This section discusses the main changes that you should be aware of if you upgrade the Beats from version 5.x to 6.x. Please also review the relevant Breaking Changes sections of the <>. // TODO: better link to the consolidated release notes for 6.0.0. [[breaking-changes-spooler-removed]] ==== Filebeat spooler removed Version 6.0 comes with a new architecture for the internal pipeline of all Beats. This architecture refactoring is mostly internal, but one of the more visible effects is that the Spooler component of Filebeat is removed. The functionality of the Spooler was similar to the one of the publisher queue from libbeat (the code shared by all Beats), and the presence of multiple queues made the performance tuning of Filebeat more complex than it needed to be. As a result, the following options are removed: - `filebeat.spool_size` - `filebeat.publish_async` - `filebeat.idle_timeout` - `queue_size` - `bulk_queue_size` The first three are specific to Filebeat, while `queue_size` and `bulk_queue_size` exist in all Beats. If any of these options is set, Filebeat 6.0 will refuse to start. Instead of the settings above, the `queue.mem` settings are introduced. If you had to tune the `spool_size` or the `queue_size` before, you might want to tune the `queue.mem.events` when upgrading. However, it is best to leave the rest of the `queue.mem` settings to their default values, as they are appropriate for all loads. The `publish_async` option (which was deprecated since 5.3) is removed because the new pipeline already works asynchronously by default. // TODO: for the above new settings, link to their configuration settings. [[breaking-changes-single-output]] ==== Only one enabled output In versions prior to 6.0, you could enabled multiple outputs at the same time, but only of different types. For example, you were able to enable the Elasticsearch and Logstash outputs, but not two Logstash outputs. The drawback of enabling multiple outputs was that the Beats that wait for acknowledgments (Filebeat and Winlogbeat) before proceeding slowed down to the slowest output. This implication was not obvious and hindered the use cases where multiple outputs would have been useful. As part of the pipeline re-architecture that we did for 6.0, we removed the option to enable multiple outputs at the same time. This helps with keeping the pipeline simple and with clarifying the scope of outputs in Beats. If you require multiple outputs, you have the following options: * use the Logstash output and then use Logstash to pipe the events to multiple outputs * run multiple instances of the same Beat If you used the `file` or `console` outputs for debugging purposes, in addition to the main output, we recommend using the `-d "publish"` option which logs the published events in the Filebeat logs. [[breaking-changes-ls-index]] ==== Logstash index setting now requires version If you use the Logstash output to send data from Beats to Logstash, you need to update the `index` setting in your Logstash configuration to include the Beat version: [source,json] ---- output { elasticsearch { hosts => "localhost:9200" manage_template => false index => "%{[@metadata][beat]}-%{[@metadata][version]}-%{+YYYY.MM.dd}" } } ---- Prior to 6.0, the recommended setting was: [source,yaml] ---- index => "%{[@metadata][beat]}-%{+YYYY.MM.dd}" ---- The index templates that ship with 6.0 are applied to new indexes that match the pattern `[beat]-[version]-*`. You must update your Logstash config, or the templates will not be applied. [[breaking-changes-types]] ==== Filebeat prospector type and document type changes The `document_type` setting, from the prospector configuration, was removed because the `_type` concept is being {elasticsearch}/removal-of-types.html[removed from Elasticsearch]. Instead of the `document_type` setting, you can use a custom field. This has led also to the rename of the `input_type` configuration setting to `type`. This change is backwards compatible because the old setting still works. However, the `input_type` output field was renamed to `prospector.type`. [[breaking-changes-default-config]] ==== Filebeat default prospector disabled in the configuration file The default startup behaviour (based on the included sample configuration) of Filebeat was to read all the files matching the `/var/log/*.log` pattern. Starting with version 6.0, Filebeat doesn't read any files in its default configuration. However, you can easily enable the `system` module, for example with a CLI flag: ["source","sh",subs="attributes"] ---- filebeat --modules=system ---- ==== Other settings changed or moved The `outputs.elasticsearch.template.*` settings have been moved under `setup.template.*`, but are otherwise unchanged. The `dashboards.*` settings have been moved under `setup.dashboards.*`. The Filebeat deprecated options `force_close_files` and `close_older` are removed. [[breaking-changes-import-dashboards]] ==== Changes for importing the Kibana dashboards The `import_dashboards` program, used to load the Kibana dashboards in previous versions of Beats, is replaced by the `setup` command. For example, the following command: ["source","sh",subs="attributes"] ---- ./scripts/import_dashboards -user elastic -pass {pwd} ---- Can be replaced with: ["source","sh",subs="attributes"] ---- ./filebeat setup -E "output.elasticsearch.username=elastic" -E "output.elasticsearch.password={pwd}" ---- Note that the `-E` flags are only required if the Elasticsearch output is not already configured in the configuration file. Besides the change in the commands, it's important to note that loading the Kibana dashboards works differently in the 6.0 version of the stack. Prior to 6.0, the dashboards were inserted directly in the `.kibana` Elasticsearch index. Starting with 6.0, the Beats use a Kibana server API. This means that the Beat that loads the dashboards needs direct access to Kibana and that the Kibana URL needs to be set. The option to set the Kibana URL is `setup.kibana.host`, which you can set in the configuration file or via the `-E` CLI flag: ["source","sh",subs="attributes"] ---- ./filebeat setup -E "setup.kibana.host=http://kibana-host:5601" ---- The default value for the Kibana host is `localhost:5601`. [[breaking-changes-filters]] ==== Metricbeat filters renamed to processors The "local" processors, which are configured at the module level, used to be called `filters` in Metricbeat, but were offering similar functionality with the global `processors`. A notable difference between the two was that the filters accessed fields relatively to the metricset (for example, `mount_point`), while the processors referred to fields by their fully qualified name (for example, `system.filesystem.mount_point`). Starting with version 6.0, the `filters` are renamed to `processors` and they can access the fields only by using the fully qualified names. [[breaking-changes-cgo]] ==== Binaries are dynamically compiled against libc Prior to 6.0, Metricbeat and Packetbeat were compiled using https://golang.org/cmd/cgo/[Cgo], while Filebeat, Winlogbeat, and Heartbeat were compiled using the pure Go compiler. One of the side-effects of compiling with Cgo is that libc is dynamically compiled. Starting with 6.0, all the Beats are compiled using Cgo and therefore dynamically compiled against libc. This can reduce the portability of the binaries, but none of the supported platforms is affected.