Events time difference between event.created and event.ingested

Hello,

I am using elk stack v8. traffic is flowing winlog->kafka - > logstash -> Elasticsearch. there is a time difference between "event created" and "event.ingest". the time difference is around 1 hour.
Logstash config file is default:

# Settings file in YAML
#
# Settings can be specified either in hierarchical form, e.g.:
#
#   pipeline:
#     batch:
#       size: 125
#       delay: 5
#
# Or as flat keys:
#
#   pipeline.batch.size: 125
#   pipeline.batch.delay: 5
#
# ------------  Node identity ------------
#
# Use a descriptive name for the node:
#
node.name: logstash
#
# If omitted the node name will default to the machine's host name
#
# ------------ Data path ------------------
#
# Which directory should be used by logstash and its plugins
# for any persistent needs. Defaults to LOGSTASH_HOME/data
#
path.data: /var/lib/logstash
#
# ------------ Pipeline Settings --------------
#
# The ID of the pipeline.
#
# pipeline.id: main
#
# Set the number of workers that will, in parallel, execute the filters+outputs
# stage of the pipeline.
#
# This defaults to the number of the host's CPU cores.
#
#pipeline.workers: 4
#
# How many events to retrieve from inputs before sending to filters+workers
#
#pipeline.batch.size: 250
#
# How long to wait in milliseconds while polling for the next event
# before dispatching an undersized batch to filters+outputs
#
#pipeline.batch.delay: 100
#
# Force Logstash to exit during shutdown even if there are still inflight
# events in memory. By default, logstash will refuse to quit until all
# received events have been pushed to the outputs.
#
# WARNING: Enabling this can lead to data loss during shutdown
#
# pipeline.unsafe_shutdown: false
#
# Set the pipeline event ordering. Options are "auto" (the default), "true" or "false".
# "auto" automatically enables ordering if the 'pipeline.workers' setting
# is also set to '1', and disables otherwise.
# "true" enforces ordering on the pipeline and prevent logstash from starting
# if there are multiple workers.
# "false" disables any extra processing necessary for preserving ordering.
#
# pipeline.ordered: auto
#
# Sets the pipeline's default value for `ecs_compatibility`, a setting that is
# available to plugins that implement an ECS Compatibility mode for use with
# the Elastic Common Schema.
# Possible values are:
# - disabled
# - v1
# - v8 (default)
# Pipelines defined before Logstash 8 operated without ECS in mind. To ensure a
# migrated pipeline continues to operate as it did before your upgrade, opt-OUT
# of ECS for the individual pipeline in its `pipelines.yml` definition. Setting
# it here will set the default for _all_ pipelines, including new ones.
#
# pipeline.ecs_compatibility: v8
#
# ------------ Pipeline Configuration Settings --------------
#
# Where to fetch the pipeline configuration for the main pipeline
#
# path.config:
#
# Pipeline configuration string for the main pipeline
#
# config.string:
#
# At startup, test if the configuration is valid and exit (dry run)
#
# config.test_and_exit: false
#
# Periodically check if the configuration has changed and reload the pipeline
# This can also be triggered manually through the SIGHUP signal
#
config.reload.automatic: true
#
# How often to check if the pipeline configuration has changed (in seconds)
# Note that the unit value (s) is required. Values without a qualifier (e.g. 60)
# are treated as nanoseconds.
# Setting the interval this way is not recommended and might change in later versions.
#
config.reload.interval: 3s
#
# Show fully compiled configuration as debug log message
# NOTE: --log.level must be 'debug'
#
# config.debug: false
#
# When enabled, process escaped characters such as \n and \" in strings in the
# pipeline configuration files.
#
# config.support_escapes: false
#
# ------------ API Settings -------------
# Define settings related to the HTTP API here.
#
# The HTTP API is enabled by default. It can be disabled, but features that rely
# on it will not work as intended.
#
# api.enabled: true
#
# By default, the HTTP API is not secured and is therefore bound to only the
# host's loopback interface, ensuring that it is not accessible to the rest of
# the network.
# When secured with SSL and Basic Auth, the API is bound to _all_ interfaces
# unless configured otherwise.
#
# api.http.host: 127.0.0.1
#
# The HTTP API web server will listen on an available port from the given range.
# Values can be specified as a single port (e.g., `9600`), or an inclusive range
# of ports (e.g., `9600-9700`).
#
# api.http.port: 9600-9700
#
# The HTTP API includes a customizable "environment" value in its response,
# which can be configured here.
#
# api.environment: "production"
#
# The HTTP API can be secured with SSL (TLS). To do so, you will need to provide
# the path to a password-protected keystore in p12 or jks format, along with credentials.
#
# api.ssl.enabled: false
# api.ssl.keystore.path: /path/to/keystore.jks
# api.ssl.keystore.password: "y0uRp4$$w0rD"
#
# The HTTP API can be configured to require authentication. Acceptable values are
#  - `none`:  no auth is required (default)
#  - `basic`: clients must authenticate with HTTP Basic auth, as configured
#             with `api.auth.basic.*` options below
# api.auth.type: none
#
# When configured with `api.auth.type` `basic`, you must provide the credentials
# that requests will be validated against. Usage of Environment or Keystore
# variable replacements is encouraged (such as the value `"${HTTP_PASS}"`, which
# resolves to the value stored in the keystore's `HTTP_PASS` variable if present
# or the same variable from the environment)
#
# api.auth.basic.username: "logstash-user"
# api.auth.basic.password: "s3cUreP4$$w0rD"
#
# ------------ Module Settings ---------------
# Define modules here.  Modules definitions must be defined as an array.
# The simple way to see this is to prepend each `name` with a `-`, and keep
# all associated variables under the `name` they are associated with, and
# above the next, like this:
#
# modules:
#   - name: MODULE_NAME
#     var.PLUGINTYPE1.PLUGINNAME1.KEY1: VALUE
#     var.PLUGINTYPE1.PLUGINNAME1.KEY2: VALUE
#     var.PLUGINTYPE2.PLUGINNAME1.KEY1: VALUE
#     var.PLUGINTYPE3.PLUGINNAME3.KEY1: VALUE
#
# Module variable names must be in the format of
#
# var.PLUGIN_TYPE.PLUGIN_NAME.KEY
#
# modules:
#
# ------------ Cloud Settings ---------------
# Define Elastic Cloud settings here.
# Format of cloud.id is a base64 value e.g. dXMtZWFzdC0xLmF3cy5mb3VuZC5pbyRub3RhcmVhbCRpZGVudGlmaWVy
# and it may have an label prefix e.g. staging:dXMtZ...
# This will overwrite 'var.elasticsearch.hosts' and 'var.kibana.host'
# cloud.id: <identifier>
#
# Format of cloud.auth is: <user>:<pass>
# This is optional
# If supplied this will overwrite 'var.elasticsearch.username' and 'var.elasticsearch.password'
# If supplied this will overwrite 'var.kibana.username' and 'var.kibana.password'
# cloud.auth: elastic:<password>
#
# ------------ Queuing Settings --------------
#
# Internal queuing model, "memory" for legacy in-memory based queuing and
# "persisted" for disk-based acked queueing. Defaults is memory
#
# queue.type: memory
#
# If using queue.type: persisted, the directory path where the data files will be stored.
# Default is path.data/queue
#
# path.queue:
#
# If using queue.type: persisted, the page data files size. The queue data consists of
# append-only data files separated into pages. Default is 64mb
#
# queue.page_capacity: 64mb
#
# If using queue.type: persisted, the maximum number of unread events in the queue.
# Default is 0 (unlimited)
#
# queue.max_events: 0
#
# If using queue.type: persisted, the total capacity of the queue in number of bytes.
# If you would like more unacked events to be buffered in Logstash, you can increase the
# capacity using this setting. Please make sure your disk drive has capacity greater than
# the size specified here. If both max_bytes and max_events are specified, Logstash will pick
# whichever criteria is reached first
# Default is 1024mb or 1gb
#
# queue.max_bytes: 1024mb
#
# If using queue.type: persisted, the maximum number of acked events before forcing a checkpoint
# Default is 1024, 0 for unlimited
#
# queue.checkpoint.acks: 1024
#
# If using queue.type: persisted, the maximum number of written events before forcing a checkpoint
# Default is 1024, 0 for unlimited
#
#queue.checkpoint.writes: 4096
#
# If using queue.type: persisted, the interval in milliseconds when a checkpoint is forced on the head page
# Default is 1000, 0 for no periodic checkpoint.
#
# queue.checkpoint.interval: 1000
#
# ------------ Dead-Letter Queue Settings --------------
# Flag to turn on dead-letter queue.
#
# dead_letter_queue.enable: false

# If using dead_letter_queue.enable: true, the maximum size of each dead letter queue. Entries
# will be dropped if they would increase the size of the dead letter queue beyond this setting.
# Default is 1024mb
# dead_letter_queue.max_bytes: 1024mb

# If using dead_letter_queue.enable: true, the interval in milliseconds where if no further events eligible for the DLQ
# have been created, a dead letter queue file will be written. A low value here will mean that more, smaller, queue files
# may be written, while a larger value will introduce more latency between items being "written" to the dead letter queue, and
# being available to be read by the dead_letter_queue input when items are are written infrequently.
# Default is 5000.
#
# dead_letter_queue.flush_interval: 5000

# If using dead_letter_queue.enable: true, the directory path where the data files will be stored.
# Default is path.data/dead_letter_queue
#
# path.dead_letter_queue:
#
# ------------ Debugging Settings --------------
#
# Options for log.level:
#   * fatal
#   * error
#   * warn
#   * info (default)
#   * debug
#   * trace
#
# log.level: info
path.logs: /var/log/logstash
#
# ------------ Other Settings --------------
#
# Where to find custom plugins
# path.plugins: []
#
# Flag to output log lines of each pipeline in its separate log file. Each log filename contains the pipeline.name
# Default is false
# pipeline.separate_logs: false
#
# ------------ X-Pack Settings (not applicable for OSS build)--------------
#
# X-Pack Monitoring
# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/monitoring-logstash.html
#xpack.monitoring.enabled: false
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.username: logstash_system
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password: password
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.proxy: ["http://proxy:port"]
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.hosts: ["https://es1:9200", "https://es2:9200"]
# an alternative to hosts + username/password settings is to use cloud_id/cloud_auth
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.cloud_id: monitoring_cluster_id:xxxxxxxxxx
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.cloud_auth: logstash_system:password
# another authentication alternative is to use an Elasticsearch API key
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.api_key: "id:api_key"
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.ssl.certificate_authority: [ "/path/to/ca.crt" ]
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.ssl.truststore.path: path/to/file
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.ssl.truststore.password: password
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.ssl.keystore.path: /path/to/file
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.ssl.keystore.password: password
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.ssl.verification_mode: certificate
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.sniffing: false
#xpack.monitoring.collection.interval: 10s
#xpack.monitoring.collection.pipeline.details.enabled: true
#
# X-Pack Management
# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/logstash-centralized-pipeline-management.html
#xpack.management.enabled: false
#xpack.management.pipeline.id: ["main", "apache_logs"]
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.username: logstash_admin_user
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.password: password
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.proxy: ["http://proxy:port"]
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.hosts: ["https://es1:9200", "https://es2:9200"]
# an alternative to hosts + username/password settings is to use cloud_id/cloud_auth
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.cloud_id: management_cluster_id:xxxxxxxxxx
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.cloud_auth: logstash_admin_user:password
# another authentication alternative is to use an Elasticsearch API key
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.api_key: "id:api_key"
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.ssl.certificate_authority: [ "/path/to/ca.crt" ]
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.ssl.truststore.path: /path/to/file
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.ssl.truststore.password: password
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.ssl.keystore.path: /path/to/file
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.ssl.keystore.password: password
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.ssl.verification_mode: certificate
#xpack.management.elasticsearch.sniffing: false
#xpack.management.logstash.poll_interval: 5s

# X-Pack GeoIP plugin
# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/plugins-filters-geoip.html#plugins-filters-geoip-manage_update
#xpack.geoip.download.endpoint: "https://geoip.elastic.co/v1/database"

Server hosting logstash is a VM with 4 cores CPU and 32GB RAM 1T storage.

htop output:

![image|689x122](upload://imfDYxGAAwkvhutPA0sMLZ1Pwjw.png)

CPU is reaching 80% on avg.

There is only 1 .conf for logstash:

input {
        kafka{
                codec => json
                bootstrap_servers => ["X.X.X.X:49153"]
                topics => ["winlogbeat"]
        }
}
filter {
}
output {
        elasticsearch {
                 hosts => ["https://X.X.X.X:9200","https://X.X.X.X:9200","https://X.X.X.X:9200"]
                 cacert => 'XXXXXXX'
                 user => "XXXX"
                 password => "XXXXX"
                 index => "winlogbeat-8.1.2"
                 action => "create"
                 pipeline => "winlogbeat-8.1.2-routing"
                 #data_stream => "true"
        }


}

HEAP size of logstash increased to 8GB.

@timestamp and ingest time:

image

Can someone advise what is issue?

thanks,
E

Since neither of those fields is created by the logstash pipeline that you say is running I do not think this is a logstash question. What sent them to kafka?

Hello Bader,

The traffic is flowing from winlogbeat -> Kafka -> logstash -> Elasticsearch.
I may be missing sthg is the logstash.yml file, which i provided above.

You logstash.conf has an empty filter section, so nothing in logstash is adding or modifying those fields. Either winlogbeat or the Elasticsearch ingestion pipeline must be doing so. It is not a logstash question.

Then I have to move the topic to Elasticsearch ?

Do you have a solution for this issue ?

If those fields are created by the Elasticsearch ingestion pipeline then move the question to the Elasticsearch forum and show the ingestion pipeline configuration.

If they are created by winlogbeat then show the beat configuration and move the question to the beats forum.

Hello,

I added the winlogbeat config:

winlogbeat.event_logs:
  - name: Application
    ignore_older: 72h

  - name: System

  - name: Security

  - name: Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational

  - name: Windows PowerShell
    event_id: 400, 403, 600, 800

  - name: Microsoft-Windows-PowerShell/Operational
    event_id: 4103, 4104, 4105, 4106

  - name: ForwardedEvents
    tags: [forwarded]



output.kafka:
  hosts: ["X.X.X.X:49153"]
  topic: "winlogbeat"  

The event.ingested is created by one the ingest pipelines used by winlogbeat, it uses a routing pipeline to direct the event to the correct ingest pipeline depending on the source.

Those pipelines will create the event.ingested with the time that Elasticsearch received the event, basically it uses this processor:

  - set:
      field: event.ingested
      value: '{{_ingest.timestamp}}'

The value for the event.created field comes from the event itself, which is the time when the Windows Operating System created the event log.

Since you are not making any changes to the original events, this could be a timezone issue.

Are the windows machine and the Elasticsearch machine in the same timezone, with the same time?

Hello Lean,

yes the windows AD and the Elasticsearch nodes share the same time and but different timezone.

Tue Apr 26 10:07:35 PM EEST 2022 ---elk node

All times given in the event are in UTC. But if one of the clocks is wrong this could cause a problem.

I would add another timestamp to the event showing when Logstash processed the event. Something like this:

@timestamp - time when Windows created the log
event.created - time when Winlogbeat read the log and created the event
event.logstash_read_timestamp - time when Logstash read the event from Kafka
event.ingested - time when event is written to Elasticsearch

how to add this field to show when the event is processed on logstash.
as a another step, I will make all the servers time zone to utc +2 daylight saving.

Any additional ideas ? is there any configuration missing or added to logstash .conf file ?

Br,
E

Increasing the processing power of server solved the time difference.

Hello guys,

When I added one additional log source (WIndows) using winlogbeat. The delay is reproduced again.

Any idea ?

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