Failed to start filebeat. Ubuntu 16.04

When I run: sudo systemctl status filebeat on my Ubuntu16.04 client
I get the following error:
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/filebeat.service; enabled; vendor preset:
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2017-11-29 06:46:57 GMT; 2s ago
Docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/index.html
Process: 23097 ExecStart=/usr/share/filebeat/bin/filebeat -c /etc/filebeat/fil
Main PID: 23097 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: filebeat.service: Main process exited, code
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: filebeat.service: Unit entered failed state
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: filebeat.service: Failed with result 'exit-
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: filebeat.service: Service hold-off time ove
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: Stopped filebeat.
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: filebeat.service: Start request repeated to
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: Failed to start filebeat.
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: filebeat.service: Unit entered failed state
Nov 29 06:46:57 ubu-1704 systemd[1]: filebeat.service: Failed with result 'exit-
here is a copy of my /etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml
###################### Filebeat Configuration Example #########################

This file is an example configuration file highlighting only the most common

options. The filebeat.full.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

#=========================== Filebeat prospectors =============================

filebeat.prospectors:

Each - is a prospector. Most options can be set at the prospector level, so

you can use different prospectors for various configurations.

Below are the prospector specific configurations.

- input_type:syslog

Paths that should be crawled and fetched. Glob based paths.

paths:
#- /var/log/*.log
- /var/log/auth.log
- /var/log/syslog
#- c:\programdata\elasticsearch\logs*

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 field can be freely picked

to add additional information to the crawled log files for filtering

#fields:

level: debug

review: 1

Multiline options

Mutiline 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.

#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

#================================ 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

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

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

Multiple outputs may be used.

#-------------------------- 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: ["elk-master:5443"]

Optional SSL. By default is off.

List of root certificates for HTTPS server verifications

ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/filebeat/logstash.crt"]
template.name: "filebeat"
template.path: "filebeat.template.json"
template.overwrite: false

Certificate for SSL client authentication

#ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"

Client Certificate Key

#ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"

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

Sets log level. The default log level is info.

Available log levels are: critical, 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: ["*"]

Also when I tried to run
sudo filebeat -configtest -c filebeat.yml -e
I get this: sudo: filebeat: command not found but filebeat is installed
filebeat is already the newest version (5.6.4).

All help appreciated

Could you check logs under /var/log/filebeat? It should give you some insights on what's going on. You can paste them here if you don't get it fixed

Thanks for the advise Carlos. But there aren't any log file/s in there for filebeat in /var/logt????

Sorry,

What version and package type of filebeat are you using?

filebeat is already the newest version (5.6.4) is what I get when trying to run sudo apt install filebeat

Perhaps you can try to launch filebeat by hand and see what's the error, just run:

# sudo filebeat -e -v

ubu_1704@ubu-1704:/var/log$ sudo filebeat -e -v
[sudo] password for ubu_1704:
sudo: filebeat: command not found

this is what I get

There is no log files and also installed filebeat on a Centos machine same result fails to start and no logfiles
either

version filebeat -5.6.4-1 .x86_64

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