Can metricbeat support run command?

[sitanxin]

Hi all,

Is there any way to run small command in the metricbeat?

fields:
os_version: "cat /etc/redhat-release"

But in result, we can see this command did not run. Is there any way we can run it?

[steffens (Steffen Siering)]

metricbeat will not run external commands for you. One option is to pass environment variables to metricbeat. e.g.

    $ OS_VERSION=$(cat /etc/redhat-release) metricbeat ...

then you can configure:

  fields.os_version: ${OS_VERSION:unknown}

Optionally without environment variables start metricbeat with:

    metricbeat -E os.version=$(cat /etc/redhat-release) ... -E os.type=linux -E os.distro=redhat -E os.arch=...

then you can configure:

  fields.os: ${os}

This config will get you an event with

"fields": {
  "os": {
    "type": "linux",
    "distro": "redhat",
    "version": "...",
    "arch": "...",
  }
}

Just an idea

[sitanxin]

this is a great idea. will test it tomorrow and share result to u.
but just be quereosity, why not support shell scripty or command? for security concern or performance?

[ruflin]

One of the main concerns in security but also performance and complexity. If we would just execute any script in the config metricbeat would become a script execution engine...

[sitanxin]

verified the 2nd way, it can work as expected. and we use ansible to combind this as well. thanks again for ur detail explains.