IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

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Frequently asked questions

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Frequently asked questions

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This functionality is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

We have collected the most frequently asked questions here. If your question isn’t answered here, contact us in the discuss forum. Your feedback is very valuable to us.

Also read Troubleshoot common problems.

Why doesn’t my enrolled agent show up in the Fleet app?

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If Elastic Agent was successfully enrolled, but doesn’t show up in the Agents list, it might not be started. Make sure the elastic-agent process is running on the host. If it’s not running, use the run command to start it.

Where does Elastic Agent store logs after startup?

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When started successfully, Metricbeat logs are stored in data/logs/metricbeat under the folder where Elastic Agent was started. If that log path does not exist, Elastic Agent was unable to start Metricbeat, which is a higher level problem to triage.

What policy is the Elastic Agent running?

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To find the policy file, inspect the elastic-agent.yml file in the directory where Elastic Agent is running. Not sure where the agent is running? See Installation layout.

If the agent is running in Fleet mode, this file contains the following citation:

fleet:
  enabled: true

The action_store.yml file (located under data/elastic-agent-*) contains the entire, unencrypted policy.

To see the Elasticsearch location, look at the hosts setting under outputs. For example:

outputs:
  default:
    api_key: Aq-mPpcBDA7TmnriKCSD:Np6NAleNQ1mMpgN_JPYazw
    hosts:
    - https://3m63533c175a4036b3d8bbe7bd462fa3.us-east-1.aws.found.io:443
    type: elasticsearch

This file also shows the version of all packages used by the current policy.

To see the Elastic Agent version, run:
```
elastic-agent version
```

Why can’t I see the data Elastic Agent is sending?

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If Elastic Agent is set up and running, but you don’t see data in Kibana:

Go to Management > Dev Tools in Kibana, and in the Console, search your index for data. For example:
```
GET metrics-*/_search
```
Or if you prefer, go to the Discover app.
Look at the data that Elastic Agent has sent and see if the name.host field contains your host machine name.

If you don’t see data for your host, it’s possible that the data is blocked in the network, or that a firewall or security problem is preventing the Elastic Agent from sending the data.

Although it’s redundant to install stand-alone Metricbeat, you might want to try installing it to see if it’s able to send data successfully to Elasticsearch. For more information, see Metricbeat quick start.

If Metricbeat is able to send data to Elasticsearch, there is possibly a bug or problem with Elastic Agent, and you should report it.

How do I restore an Elastic Agent that I deleted from Fleet?

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It’s ok, we’ve got your back! The data is still in Elasticsearch. To add Elastic Agent to Fleet again, Stop Elastic Agent, re-enroll it on the host, then run Elastic Agent.

How do I restart Elastic Agent after rebooting my host?

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Elastic Agent should restart automatically when you reboot your host. If it doesn’t, you can start it manually by running:

elastic-agent run

If the process is already running, you can restart it by running:

elastic-agent restart

Does Elastic Agent or Kibana download integration packages?

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Elastic Agent does not download integration packages. When you add an integration in Fleet, Kibana connects to the Elastic Package Registry at epr.elastic.co, downloads the integration package, and stores its assets in Elasticsearch. This means that you no longer have to run a manual setup command to load integrations as you did previously with Beats modules.

Does Elastic Agent download anything from the Internet?

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In most cases, the data collection software required by Elastic Agent is bundled with the agent. There is one special exception: endpoint security. When an Elastic Agent policy is set to include the Endpoint Security integration, Elastic Agent must download software from the Elastic download site.

Bundling endpoint security capabilities with Elastic Agent is a known feature request scoped for a future release.

Do I need to set up the Beats managed by Elastic Agent?

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You might have noticed that Elastic Agent runs Beats under the hood. But note that the Beats managed by Elastic Agent are set up and run differently from standalone Beats.

For example, standalone Beats use modules and require you to run a setup command on the host to load assets, such as ingest pipelines and dashboards. In contrast, Beats managed by Elastic Agent use integration packages that Kibana downloads from the Elastic Package Registry at epr.elastic.co. This means that Elastic Agent does not need extra privileges to set up assets because Fleet manages the assets.

What is the Endpoint Security integration in Fleet?

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The Endpoint Security integration provides protection on your Elastic Agent controlled host. The integration monitors your host for security-related events, allowing for investigation of security data through the Elastic Security app in Kibana. The Endpoint Security integration is managed by Elastic Agent in the same way as other integrations. Try it out! For more information, see the Elastic Security documentation.

How are communications secured between Elastic Security and Elastic Agent?

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Elastic Security connects to the agent over loopback TLS on port 6788. Elastic Security validates that the agent has root (Linux and macOS) or SYSTEM (Windows) permissions.

How are communications secured between Elastic Agent and Kibana?

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Elastic Agent connects to Kibana over TLS and authenticates the certificate presented by Kibana. The agent then provides an API key as an authentication token, which Kibana validates.

Which Elasticsearch and Kibana ports need to be accessible?

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The policy generated by Fleet already contains the correct Elasticsearch address and port for your setup. If you run everything locally, the address is 127.0.0.1:9200. If you use our hosted Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud, you can copy the Elasticsearch endpoint URL from the overview page of your deployment. If you’re not running in Elastic Cloud, make sure the Kibana and Elasticsearch HTTPS ports are both accessible; by default these are 5601 and 9200 respectively.

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