Get started with APM

Starting in version 8.15.0, the Elasticsearch apm-data plugin manages APM index templates, lifecycle policies, and ingest pipelines.

The APM Server receives performance data from your APM agents, validates and processes it, and then transforms the data into Elasticsearch documents. If you’re on this page, then you’ve chosen to self-manage the Elastic Stack, and you now must decide how to run and configure the APM Server. There are two options, and the components required are different for each:

Fleet-managed APM Server
APM Server binary

Fleet-managed APM Server

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Fleet is a web-based UI in Kibana that is used to centrally manage Elastic Agents. In this deployment model, use Elastic Agent to spin up APM Server instances that can be centrally-managed in a custom-curated user interface.

Fleet-managed APM Server does not have full feature parity with the APM Server binary method of running Elastic APM.

Pros	Conveniently manage one, some, or many different integrations from one central Fleet UI.
Supported outputs	Elasticsearch Elasticsearch Service
Required components	APM agents APM Server Elastic Agent Fleet Server Elastic Stack
Configuration method	Kibana UI

APM Server binary

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Install, configure, and run the APM Server binary wherever you need it.

Pros	Simplest self-managed option No addition component knowledge required YAML configuration simplifies automation
Supported outputs	Elasticsearch Elasticsearch Service Logstash Kafka Redis File Console
Required components	APM agents APM Server Elastic Stack
Configuration method	YAML

Help me decide

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Use the decision tree below to help determine which method of configuring and running the APM Server is best for your use case.

« Application performance monitoring (APM) Fleet-managed APM Server »