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Heartbeat input plugin

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Heartbeat input plugin

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Plugin version: v3.1.1
Released on: 2021-08-04
Changelog

For other versions, see the Versioned plugin docs.

Getting help

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For questions about the plugin, open a topic in the Discuss forums. For bugs or feature requests, open an issue in Github. For the list of Elastic supported plugins, please consult the Elastic Support Matrix.

Description

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Generate heartbeat messages.

The general intention of this is to test the performance and availability of Logstash.

Elastic Common Schema (ECS)

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This plugin could provide a field, originally named clock, to track epoch or sequence incremental numbers. When ECS compatibility mode is enabled that value is now present in the event’s [event][sequence] subfield.

When ECS compatibility mode is enabled the use of message as selector of sequence type is not available and only sequence is considered. In this case if message contains sequence selector strings it’s ignored.

The existing host field is moved to [host][name] when ECS is enabled.

`disabled`	`v1`, `v8`	Availability	Description
[host]	[host][name]	Always	Name or address of the host is running the plugin
[clock]	[event][sequence]	When `sequence` setting enables it	Increment counter based on seconds or from local 0 based counter

Heartbeat Input Configuration Options

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This plugin supports the following configuration options plus the Common options described later.

Setting	Input type	Required
`count`	number	No
`ecs_compatibility`	string	No
`interval`	number	No
`message`	string	No
`sequence`	string one of `["none", "epoch", "sequence"]`	No
`threads`	number	No

Also see Common options for a list of options supported by all input plugins.

`count`

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Value type is number
Default value is -1

How many times to iterate. This is typically used only for testing purposes.

`ecs_compatibility`

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Value type is string
Supported values are:
- disabled: clock counter field added at root level
- v1,v8: ECS compliant [event][sequence] counter field added to the event
Default value depends on which version of Logstash is running:
- When Logstash provides a pipeline.ecs_compatibility setting, its value is used as the default
- Otherwise, the default value is disabled.

Controls this plugin’s compatibility with the Elastic Common Schema (ECS). Refer to Elastic Common Schema (ECS) in this topic for detailed information.

`interval`

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Value type is number
Default value is 60

Set how frequently messages should be sent.

The default, 60, means send a message every 60 seconds.

`message`

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Value type is string
Default value is "ok"

The message string to use in the event.

If you set this value to epoch, then this plugin will use the current timestamp in unix timestamp (which is by definition, UTC). It will output this value into a field called clock

If you set this value to sequence, then this plugin will send a sequence of numbers beginning at 0 and incrementing each interval. It will output this value into a field called clock

Otherwise, this value will be used verbatim as the event message. It will output this value into a field called message

Usage of epoch and sequence in message setting is deprecated. Consider using sequence settings, which takes precedence over the usage of message setting as selector.

If ECS compatibility mode is enabled and message contains epoch or sequence, it is ignored and is not present as a field in the generated event.

`sequence`

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Value can be any of: none, epoch, sequence
Default value is "none""

If you set this value to none, then no sequence field is added.

If you set this value to epoch, then this plugin will use the current timestamp in unix timestamp (which is by definition, UTC). It will output this value into a field called clock if ECS compatibility mode is disabled. Otherwise, the field name is [event][sequence].

If you set this value to sequence, then this plugin will send a sequence of numbers beginning at 0 and incrementing each interval. It will output this value into a field called clock if ECS compatibility mode is disabled. Otherwise, the field name is [event][sequence]

If sequence is defined, it takes precedence over message configuration. If message doesn’t have epoch or sequence values, it will be present in the generated event together with clock field.

`threads`

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Value type is number
Default value is 1

Common options

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These configuration options are supported by all input plugins:

Setting	Input type	Required
`add_field`	hash	No
`codec`	codec	No
`enable_metric`	boolean	No
`id`	string	No
`tags`	array	No
`type`	string	No

`add_field`

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Value type is hash
Default value is {}

Add a field to an event

`codec`

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Value type is codec
Default value is "plain"

The codec used for input data. Input codecs are a convenient method for decoding your data before it enters the input, without needing a separate filter in your Logstash pipeline.

`enable_metric`

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Value type is boolean
Default value is true

Disable or enable metric logging for this specific plugin instance by default we record all the metrics we can, but you can disable metrics collection for a specific plugin.

`id`

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Value type is string
There is no default value for this setting.

Add a unique ID to the plugin configuration. If no ID is specified, Logstash will generate one. It is strongly recommended to set this ID in your configuration. This is particularly useful when you have two or more plugins of the same type, for example, if you have 2 heartbeat inputs. Adding a named ID in this case will help in monitoring Logstash when using the monitoring APIs.

input {
  heartbeat {
    id => "my_plugin_id"
  }
}

Variable substitution in the id field only supports environment variables and does not support the use of values from the secret store.

`tags`

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Value type is array
There is no default value for this setting.

Add any number of arbitrary tags to your event.

This can help with processing later.

`type`

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Value type is string
There is no default value for this setting.

Add a type field to all events handled by this input.

Types are used mainly for filter activation.

The type is stored as part of the event itself, so you can also use the type to search for it in Kibana.

If you try to set a type on an event that already has one (for example when you send an event from a shipper to an indexer) then a new input will not override the existing type. A type set at the shipper stays with that event for its life even when sent to another Logstash server.

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