# ELI5: Elasticsearch, Kibana and Logstash (and Beats)

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/eli5-elasticsearch-kibana-and-logstash-and-beats/256694>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 25, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/eli5-elasticsearch-kibana-and-logstash-and-beats/256694 "2020-11-25T17:15:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![riahc3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d6d6ee/32.png) [@riahc3](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/riahc3)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/eli5-elasticsearch-kibana-and-logstash-and-beats/256694/1 "2020-11-25T17:15:38Z")

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Im having some issues understanding the components.

Elasticsearch: Used for indexing and searching thru logs. Pretty straight forward.

Kibana: Used as a GUI. Pretty straight forward.

Logstash: Is this a syslog? Does this store the logs? Can I store this on a NFS share?

Beats: Is this installed on a all-in-one Elastic Stack with the rest of the components? Or is this installed on other hosts? How do I install/use this for a network switch?

I think Im getting confused/messed up with the last two and that causing me issues in understanding

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 5:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/eli5-elasticsearch-kibana-and-logstash-and-beats/256694/2 "2020-12-23T17:16:10Z")

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