[[winlogbeat-getting-started]] == Getting Started With Winlogbeat To get started with your own Winlogbeat setup, install and configure these related products: * Elasticsearch for storage and indexing the data. * Kibana for the UI. * Logstash (optional) for inserting data into Elasticsearch. See {libbeat}/getting-started.html[Getting Started with Beats and the Elastic Stack] for more information. After installing the Elastic Stack, read the following topics to learn how to install, configure, and run Winlogbeat: * <> * <> * <> * <> * <> * <> * <> [[winlogbeat-installation]] === Step 1: Install Winlogbeat . Download the Winlogbeat zip file from the https://www.elastic.co/downloads/beats/winlogbeat[downloads page]. . Extract the contents into `C:\Program Files`. . Rename the `winlogbeat-` directory to `Winlogbeat`. . Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator (right-click on the PowerShell icon and select Run As Administrator). If you are running Windows XP, you may need to download and install PowerShell. . From the PowerShell prompt, run the following commands to install the service. ["source","sh",subs="attributes,callouts"] ------------------------------------------------ PS C:\Users\Administrator> cd 'C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat' PS C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat> .\install-service-winlogbeat.ps1 Security warning Run only scripts that you trust. While scripts from the internet can be useful, this script can potentially harm your computer. If you trust this script, use the Unblock-File cmdlet to allow the script to run without this warning message. Do you want to run C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat\install-service-winlogbeat.ps1? [D] Do not run [R] Run once [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "D"): R Status Name DisplayName ------ ---- ----------- Stopped winlogbeat winlogbeat ------------------------------------------------ NOTE: If script execution is disabled on your system, you need to set the execution policy for the current session to allow the script to run. For example: `PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted -File .\install-service-winlogbeat.ps1`. Before starting Winlogbeat, you should look at the configuration options in the configuration file, for example `C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat\winlogbeat.yml`. There’s also a full example configuration file called `winlogbeat.reference.yml` that shows all non-deprecated options. For more information about these options, see <>. [[winlogbeat-configuration]] === Step 2: Configure Winlogbeat To configure Winlogbeat, you edit the `winlogbeat.yml` configuration file. See the {libbeat}/config-file-format.html[Config File Format] section of the _Beats Platform Reference_ for more about the structure of the config file. Here is a sample of the `winlogbeat.yml` file: [source,yaml] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- winlogbeat.event_logs: - name: Application - name: Security - name: System output.elasticsearch: hosts: - localhost:9200 logging.to_files: true logging.files: path: C:/ProgramData/winlogbeat/Logs logging.level: info -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To configure Winlogbeat: . In the `event_logs` section, specify the event logs that you want to monitor. By default, Winlogbeat is set to monitor application, security, and system logs: + [source,yaml] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- winlogbeat.event_logs: - name: Application - name: Security - name: System ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + To obtain a list of available event logs, run `Get-EventLog *` in PowerShell. For more information about this command, see the configuration details for <>. . If you are sending output directly to Elasticsearch (and not using Logstash), set the IP address and port where Winlogbeat can find the Elasticsearch installation: + [source,yaml] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- output.elasticsearch: hosts: - localhost:9200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + If you are sending output to Logstash, make sure you <> instead. include::../../libbeat/docs/step-configure-kibana-endpoint.asciidoc[] include::../../libbeat/docs/step-configure-credentials.asciidoc[] . After you save your configuration file, test it with the following command. + [source,shell] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PS C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat> .\winlogbeat.exe test config -c .\winlogbeat.yml -e ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [[config-winlogbeat-logstash]] === Step 3: Configure Winlogbeat to use Logstash :win: include::../../libbeat/docs/shared-logstash-config.asciidoc[] [[winlogbeat-template]] === Step 4: Load the index template in Elasticsearch include::../../libbeat/docs/shared-template-load.asciidoc[] [[load-kibana-dashboards]] === Step 5: Set up the Kibana dashboards :win: include::../../libbeat/docs/dashboards.asciidoc[] [[winlogbeat-starting]] === Step 6: Start Winlogbeat Start the Winlogbeat service with the following command. If you are accessing a secured Elasticsearch cluster, make sure you've configured credentials as described in <<{beatname_lc}-configuration>>. [source,shell] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PS C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat> Start-Service winlogbeat ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Winlogbeat should now be running. If you used the configuration described here, then you can view the log file at `C:\ProgramData\winlogbeat\Logs\winlogbeat`. You can view the status of the service and control it from the Services management console in Windows. To launch the management console, run this command: [source,shell] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PS C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat> services.msc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ==== Stop Winlogbeat Stop the Winlogbeat service with the following command: [source,shell] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PS C:\Program Files\Winlogbeat> Stop-Service winlogbeat ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [[view-kibana-dashboards]] === Step 7: View the sample Kibana dashboards To make it easier for you to start monitoring your servers in Kibana, we have created example {beatname_uc} dashboards. You loaded the dashboards earlier when you ran the `setup` command. include::../../libbeat/docs/opendashboards.asciidoc[] The dashboards are provided as examples. We recommend that you {kibana-ref}/dashboard.html[customize] them to meet your needs. image:./images/winlogbeat-dashboard.png[Winlogbeat statistics]