# Cannot get Filebeat to stream

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-get-filebeat-to-stream/216529>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [January 25, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-get-filebeat-to-stream/216529 "2020-01-25T15:35:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arutale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@arutale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/arutale)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-get-filebeat-to-stream/216529/1 "2020-01-25T15:35:15Z")

</div>

I'm trying out [elastic.co](http://elastic.co) I have installed Beats on my server and i'm trying to configure the filebeat.yml file.

Under cloud, i have applied the configuration following these instructions: [Configure the output for the Elastic Cloud | Filebeat Reference [7.5] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/7.5/configure-cloud-id.html)

When i try to enable and start filebeat using these commands:  
systemctl enable filebeat  
systemctl start filebeat

and then check the logs using this command:  
journalctl --unit filebeat

I see the following messages:

> ```
> Jan 20 18:28:55 server.name,net systemd[1]: Failed to start Filebeat sends log files to Logstash or directly to Elasticsearch..
> Jan 20 18:28:55 server.name,net systemd[1]: Unit filebeat.service entered failed state.
> Jan 20 18:28:55 server.name,net systemd[1]: filebeat.service failed.
> Jan 20 18:48:34 server.name,net systemd[1]: Started Filebeat sends log files to Logstash or directly to Elasticsearch..
> Jan 20 18:48:34 mercury.redvon.net filebeat[25669]: Exiting: error loading config file: yaml: line 141: could not find expected ':'
> Jan 20 18:48:34 server.name,net systemd[1]: filebeat.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
> 
> ```

Which keeps repeating.

Even when I try runing the command line  
`filebeat -e -E cloud.id="<cloud-id>" -E cloud.auth="<cloud.auth>"`  
with the right values inserted, i get  
`Exiting: error loading config file: yaml: line 141: could not find expected ':'`

Even when I try single quotations:

My filebeat.yml file is below. I have slightly modified my cloud id and auth for security

==============================

```
###################### Filebeat Configuration Example #########################

# This file is an example configuration file highlighting only the most common
# options. The filebeat.reference.yml file from the same directory contains all the
# supported options with more comments. You can use it as a reference.
#
# You can find the full configuration reference here:
# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/index.html

# For more available modules and options, please see the filebeat.reference.yml sample
# configuration file.

#=========================== Filebeat inputs =============================

filebeat.inputs:

# Each - is an input. Most options can be set at the input level, so
# you can use different inputs for various configurations.
# Below are the input specific configurations.

- type: log

  # Change to true to enable this input configuration.
  enabled: true

  # Paths that should be crawled and fetched. Glob based paths.
  paths:
   # - /var/log/*.log
    #- c:\programdata\elasticsearch\logs\*
   - /var/log/messages
   - /var/log/secure

  # Exclude lines. A list of regular expressions to match. It drops the lines that are
  # matching any regular expression from the list.
  #exclude_lines: ['^DBG']

  # Include lines. A list of regular expressions to match. It exports the lines that are
  # matching any regular expression from the list.
  #include_lines: ['^ERR', '^WARN']

  # Exclude files. A list of regular expressions to match. Filebeat drops the files that
  # are matching any regular expression from the list. By default, no files are dropped.
  #exclude_files: ['.gz$']

  # Optional additional fields. These fields can be freely picked
  # to add additional information to the crawled log files for filtering
  #fields:
  # level: debug
  # review: 1

  ### Multiline options

  # Multiline can be used for log messages spanning multiple lines. This is common
  # for Java Stack Traces or C-Line Continuation

  # The regexp Pattern that has to be matched. The example pattern matches all lines starting with [
  #multiline.pattern: ^\[

  # Defines if the pattern set under pattern should be negated or not. Default is false.
# Defines if the pattern set under pattern should be negated or not. Default is false.
  #multiline.negate: false

  # Match can be set to "after" or "before". It is used to define if lines should be append to a pattern
  # that was (not) matched before or after or as long as a pattern is not matched based on negate.
  # Note: After is the equivalent to previous and before is the equivalent to to next in Logstash
  #multiline.match: after

#============================= Filebeat modules ===============================

filebeat.config.modules:
  # Glob pattern for configuration loading
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml

  # Set to true to enable config reloading
  reload.enabled: false

  # Period on which files under path should be checked for changes
  #reload.period: 10s

#==================== Elasticsearch template setting ==========================

setup.template.settings:
  index.number_of_shards: 1
  #index.codec: best_compression
  #_source.enabled: false

#================================ General =====================================

# The name of the shipper that publishes the network data. It can be used to group
# all the transactions sent by a single shipper in the web interface.
#name:

# The tags of the shipper are included in their own field with each
# transaction published.
#tags: ["service-X", "web-tier"]

# Optional fields that you can specify to add additional information to the
# output.
#fields:
# env: staging

#============================== Dashboards =====================================
# These settings control loading the sample dashboards to the Kibana index. Loading
# the dashboards is disabled by default and can be enabled either by setting the
# options here or by using the `setup` command.
#setup.dashboards.enabled: false

# The URL from where to download the dashboards archive. By default this URL
# has a value which is computed based on the Beat name and version. For released
# versions, this URL points to the dashboard archive on the artifacts.elastic.co
# website.
#setup.dashboards.url:

#============================== Kibana =====================================
# Starting with Beats version 6.0.0, the dashboards are loaded via the Kibana API.
# This requires a Kibana endpoint configuration.
setup.kibana:

  # Kibana Host
  # Scheme and port can be left out and will be set to the default (http and 5601)
  # In case you specify and additional path, the scheme is required: http://localhost:5601/path
  # IPv6 addresses should always be defined as: https://[2001:db8::1]:5601
  #host: "localhost:5601"

  # Kibana Space ID
  # ID of the Kibana Space into which the dashboards should be loaded. By default,
  # the Default Space will be used.
  #space.id:

#============================= Elastic Cloud ==================================

# These settings simplify using Filebeat with the Elastic Cloud (https://cloud.elastic.co/).

# The cloud.id setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.hosts` and
# `setup.kibana.host` options.
# You can find the `cloud.id` in the Elastic Cloud web UI.
cloud.id:"Site-Log-analysis:ZXUtd2VzdC0xLmF3cy5mb3VuZC5pbyQzMWY1OWJiOTIxYTg0N2ZjYjNhZGQ1ZGEzNzFjZGYwYSQ4ZDUxZmNiMzMyYTc0YWE2YjIzOTk2N2E2NWRlYTkyYB2L"

# The cloud.auth setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.username` and
# `output.elasticsearch.password` settings. The format is `<user>:<pass>`.
cloud.auth:"elastic:3nxMKWdj04KE2jFeVqS4EH9d"

#================================ Outputs =====================================

# Configure what output to use when sending the data collected by the beat.

#-------------------------- Elasticsearch output ------------------------------
#output.elasticsearch:
  # Array of hosts to connect to.
  hosts: ["localhost:9200"]

  # Optional protocol and basic auth credentials.
  #protocol: "https"
  #username: "elastic"
  #password: "changeme"

#----------------------------- Logstash output --------------------------------
#output.logstash:
  # The Logstash hosts
  #hosts: ["localhost:5044"]

  # Optional SSL. By default is off.
  # List of root certificates for HTTPS server verifications
  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]

  # Certificate for SSL client authentication
  #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"

  # Client Certificate Key
  #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"

#================================ Processors =====================================

# Configure processors to enhance or manipulate events generated by the beat.

processors:
  - add_host_metadata: ~
  - add_cloud_metadata: ~
  - add_docker_metadata: ~
  - add_kubernetes_metadata: ~

#================================ Logging =====================================

# Sets log level. The default log level is info.
# Available log levels are: error, warning, info, debug
#logging.level: debug

# At debug level, you can selectively enable logging only for some components.
# To enable all selectors use ["*"]. Examples of other selectors are "beat",
# "publish", "service".
#logging.selectors: ["*"]

#============================== X-Pack Monitoring ===============================
# filebeat can export internal metrics to a central Elasticsearch monitoring
# cluster. This requires xpack monitoring to be enabled in Elasticsearch. The
# reporting is disabled by default.

# Set to true to enable the monitoring reporter.
#monitoring.enabled: false

# Sets the UUID of the Elasticsearch cluster under which monitoring data for this
# Filebeat instance will appear in the Stack Monitoring UI. If output.elasticsearch
# is enabled, the UUID is derived from the Elasticsearch cluster referenced by output.elasticsearch.
#monitoring.cluster_uuid:

# Uncomment to send the metrics to Elasticsearch. Most settings from the
# Elasticsearch output are accepted here as well.
# Note that the settings should point to your Elasticsearch *monitoring* cluster.
# Any setting that is not set is automatically inherited from the Elasticsearch
# output configuration, so if you have the Elasticsearch output configured such
# that it is pointing to your Elasticsearch monitoring cluster, you can simply
# uncomment the following line.
#monitoring.elasticsearch:

#================================= Migration ==================================

# This allows to enable 6.7 migration aliases

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ChrsMark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chrsmark/32/55858_2.png) [@ChrsMark](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ChrsMark)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 10:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-get-filebeat-to-stream/216529/2 "2020-01-27T10:23:58Z")

</div>

Hi!

As you error message indicates it is a YAML loading issue. Here are the errors I notice:

1. you need to remove `hosts: ["localhost:9200"]` line
2. add a space between key-value pairs of cloud configuration for instance:  
`cloud.auth: "elastic:3nxMKWdj04KE2jFeVqS4EH9d"`

C.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arutale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@arutale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/arutale)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-get-filebeat-to-stream/216529/3 "2020-01-27T20:53:16Z")

</div>

Thanks,

I have done as you suggested but i still get  
`Exiting: error loading config file: yaml: line 141: could not find expected ':'`

My line 141 is this  
`#`output.elasticsearch.password`settings. The format is`:`.`  
Which means there is an issue with the colon around 'Cloud.id' but I have tried everything, single quotation, double quotation, spaces on both sides of the colon, nothing seems to work,

My elastic cloud config section in 'Filebeat.yml' now looks like this.

```
#============================= Elastic Cloud ==================================

# These settings simplify using Filebeat with the Elastic Cloud (https://cloud.elastic.co/).

# The cloud.id setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.hosts` and
# `setup.kibana.host` options.
# You can find the `cloud.id` in the Elastic Cloud web UI.
cloud.id: "Site-Log-analysis:ZXUtd2VzdC0xLmF3cy5mb3VuZC5pbyQzMWY1OWJiOTIxYTg0N2ZjYjNhZGQ1ZGEzNzFjZGYwYSQ4ZDUxZmNiMzMyYTc0YWE2YjIzOTk2N2E2NWRlYTkyYrQW"
# The cloud.auth setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.username` and
# `output.elasticsearch.password` settings. The format is `<user>:<pass>`.
cloud.auth: "elastic:3nxMKWdj04KE2jFeVqS4EH9d"

#================================ Outputs =====================================
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ChrsMark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chrsmark/32/55858_2.png) [@ChrsMark](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ChrsMark)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 8:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-get-filebeat-to-stream/216529/4 "2020-01-28T08:45:23Z")

</div>

Hi!

Could you try with:

```auto
###################### Filebeat Configuration Example #########################

# This file is an example configuration file highlighting only the most common
# options. The filebeat.reference.yml file from the same directory contains all the
# supported options with more comments. You can use it as a reference.
#
# You can find the full configuration reference here:
# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/index.html

# For more available modules and options, please see the filebeat.reference.yml sample
# configuration file.

#=========================== Filebeat inputs =============================

filebeat.inputs:

# Each - is an input. Most options can be set at the input level, so
# you can use different inputs for various configurations.
# Below are the input specific configurations.

- type: log

  # Change to true to enable this input configuration.
  enabled: true

  # Paths that should be crawled and fetched. Glob based paths.
  paths:
   # - /var/log/*.log
    #- c:\programdata\elasticsearch\logs\*
   - /var/log/messages
   - /var/log/secure

  # Exclude lines. A list of regular expressions to match. It drops the lines that are
  # matching any regular expression from the list.
  #exclude_lines: ['^DBG']

  # Include lines. A list of regular expressions to match. It exports the lines that are
  # matching any regular expression from the list.
  #include_lines: ['^ERR', '^WARN']

  # Exclude files. A list of regular expressions to match. Filebeat drops the files that
  # are matching any regular expression from the list. By default, no files are dropped.
  #exclude_files: ['.gz$']

  # Optional additional fields. These fields can be freely picked
  # to add additional information to the crawled log files for filtering
  #fields:
  # level: debug
  # review: 1

  ### Multiline options

  # Multiline can be used for log messages spanning multiple lines. This is common
  # for Java Stack Traces or C-Line Continuation

  # The regexp Pattern that has to be matched. The example pattern matches all lines starting with [
  #multiline.pattern: ^\[

  # Defines if the pattern set under pattern should be negated or not. Default is false.
# Defines if the pattern set under pattern should be negated or not. Default is false.
  #multiline.negate: false

  # Match can be set to "after" or "before". It is used to define if lines should be append to a pattern
  # that was (not) matched before or after or as long as a pattern is not matched based on negate.
  # Note: After is the equivalent to previous and before is the equivalent to to next in Logstash
  #multiline.match: after

#============================= Filebeat modules ===============================

filebeat.config.modules:
  # Glob pattern for configuration loading
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml

  # Set to true to enable config reloading
  reload.enabled: false

  # Period on which files under path should be checked for changes
  #reload.period: 10s

#==================== Elasticsearch template setting ==========================

setup.template.settings:
  index.number_of_shards: 1
  #index.codec: best_compression
  #_source.enabled: false

#================================ General =====================================

# The name of the shipper that publishes the network data. It can be used to group
# all the transactions sent by a single shipper in the web interface.
#name:

# The tags of the shipper are included in their own field with each
# transaction published.
#tags: ["service-X", "web-tier"]

# Optional fields that you can specify to add additional information to the
# output.
#fields:
# env: staging

#============================== Dashboards =====================================
# These settings control loading the sample dashboards to the Kibana index. Loading
# the dashboards is disabled by default and can be enabled either by setting the
# options here or by using the `setup` command.
#setup.dashboards.enabled: false

# The URL from where to download the dashboards archive. By default this URL
# has a value which is computed based on the Beat name and version. For released
# versions, this URL points to the dashboard archive on the artifacts.elastic.co
# website.
#setup.dashboards.url:

#============================== Kibana =====================================
# Starting with Beats version 6.0.0, the dashboards are loaded via the Kibana API.
# This requires a Kibana endpoint configuration.
setup.kibana:

  # Kibana Host
  # Scheme and port can be left out and will be set to the default (http and 5601)
  # In case you specify and additional path, the scheme is required: http://localhost:5601/path
  # IPv6 addresses should always be defined as: https://[2001:db8::1]:5601
  #host: "localhost:5601"

  # Kibana Space ID
  # ID of the Kibana Space into which the dashboards should be loaded. By default,
  # the Default Space will be used.
  #space.id:

#============================= Elastic Cloud ==================================

# These settings simplify using Filebeat with the Elastic Cloud (https://cloud.elastic.co/).

# The cloud.id setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.hosts` and
# `setup.kibana.host` options.
# You can find the `cloud.id` in the Elastic Cloud web UI.
cloud.id: "Site-Log-analysis:ZXUtd2VzdC0xLmF3cy5mb3VuZC5pbyQzMWY1OWJiOTIxYTg0N2ZjYjNhZGQ1ZGEzNzFjZGYwYSQ4ZDUxZmNiMzMyYTc0YWE2YjIzOTk2N2E2NWRlYTkyYB2L"

# The cloud.auth setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.username` and
# `output.elasticsearch.password` settings. The format is `<user>:<pass>`.
cloud.auth: "elastic:3nxMKWdj04KE2jFeVqS4EH9d"

#================================ Outputs =====================================

# Configure what output to use when sending the data collected by the beat.

#-------------------------- Elasticsearch output ------------------------------
#output.elasticsearch:
  # Array of hosts to connect to.
  # hosts: ["localhost:9200"]

  # Optional protocol and basic auth credentials.
  #protocol: "https"
  #username: "elastic"
  #password: "changeme"

#----------------------------- Logstash output --------------------------------
#output.logstash:
  # The Logstash hosts
  #hosts: ["localhost:5044"]

  # Optional SSL. By default is off.
  # List of root certificates for HTTPS server verifications
  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]

  # Certificate for SSL client authentication
  #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"

  # Client Certificate Key
  #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"

#================================ Processors =====================================

# Configure processors to enhance or manipulate events generated by the beat.

processors:
  - add_host_metadata: ~
  - add_cloud_metadata: ~
  - add_docker_metadata: ~
  - add_kubernetes_metadata: ~

#================================ Logging =====================================

# Sets log level. The default log level is info.
# Available log levels are: error, warning, info, debug
#logging.level: debug

# At debug level, you can selectively enable logging only for some components.
# To enable all selectors use ["*"]. Examples of other selectors are "beat",
# "publish", "service".
#logging.selectors: ["*"]

#============================== X-Pack Monitoring ===============================
# filebeat can export internal metrics to a central Elasticsearch monitoring
# cluster. This requires xpack monitoring to be enabled in Elasticsearch. The
# reporting is disabled by default.

# Set to true to enable the monitoring reporter.
#monitoring.enabled: false

# Sets the UUID of the Elasticsearch cluster under which monitoring data for this
# Filebeat instance will appear in the Stack Monitoring UI. If output.elasticsearch
# is enabled, the UUID is derived from the Elasticsearch cluster referenced by output.elasticsearch.
#monitoring.cluster_uuid:

# Uncomment to send the metrics to Elasticsearch. Most settings from the
# Elasticsearch output are accepted here as well.
# Note that the settings should point to your Elasticsearch *monitoring* cluster.
# Any setting that is not set is automatically inherited from the Elasticsearch
# output configuration, so if you have the Elasticsearch output configured such
# that it is pointing to your Elasticsearch monitoring cluster, you can simply
# uncomment the following line.
#monitoring.elasticsearch:

#================================= Migration ==================================

# This allows to enable 6.7 migration aliases

```

I was able to validate this with an online YAML validator. It should be ok now.

C.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 10:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-get-filebeat-to-stream/216529/5 "2020-02-25T10:45:24Z")

</div>

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