Directory layout

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The directory layout of an installation is as follows:

Type Description Default Location Config Option

home

Home of the Metricbeat installation.

path.home

bin

The location for the binary files.

{path.home}/bin

config

The location for configuration files.

{path.home}

path.config

data

The location for persistent data files.

{path.home}/data

path.data

logs

The location for the logs created by Metricbeat.

{path.home}/logs

path.logs

You can change these settings by using CLI flags or setting path options in the configuration file.

Default paths

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Metricbeat uses the following default paths unless you explicitly change them.

deb and rpm
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Type Description Location

home

Home of the Metricbeat installation.

/usr/share/metricbeat

bin

The location for the binary files.

/usr/share/metricbeat/bin

config

The location for configuration files.

/etc/metricbeat

data

The location for persistent data files.

/var/lib/metricbeat

logs

The location for the logs created by Metricbeat.

/var/log/metricbeat

For the deb and rpm distributions, these paths are set in the init script or in the systemd unit file. Make sure that you start the Metricbeat service by using the preferred operating system method (init scripts or systemctl). Otherwise the paths might be set incorrectly.

docker
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Type Description Location

home

Home of the Metricbeat installation.

/usr/share/metricbeat

bin

The location for the binary files.

/usr/share/metricbeat

config

The location for configuration files.

/usr/share/metricbeat

data

The location for persistent data files.

/usr/share/metricbeat/data

logs

The location for the logs created by Metricbeat.

/usr/share//metricbeat/logs

zip, tar.gz, and tgz
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Type Description Location

home

Home of the Metricbeat installation.

{extract.path}

bin

The location for the binary files.

{extract.path}

config

The location for configuration files.

{extract.path}

data

The location for persistent data files.

{extract.path}/data

logs

The location for the logs created by Metricbeat.

{extract.path}/logs

For the zip, tar.gz and tgz distributions, these paths are based on the location of the extracted binary file. This means that if you start Metricbeat with the following simple command, all paths are set correctly:

./metricbeat