# Failed to start filebeat. Ubuntu 16.04
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520
**Category:** Beats
**Tags:** filebeat
**Created:** [November 29, 2017, 6:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520 "2017-11-29T06:53:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@purpleturtle99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/purpleturtle99)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2017, 6:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/1 "2017-11-29T06:53:52Z")
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](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](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](http://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
---
### Author:  [@exekias](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/exekias)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/2 "2017-11-29T10:52:39Z")
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
---
### Author:  [@purpleturtle99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/purpleturtle99)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2017, 11:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/3 "2017-11-29T11:47:48Z")
Thanks for the advise Carlos. But there aren't any log file/s in there for filebeat in /var/logt????
---
### Author:  [@exekias](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/exekias)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/4 "2017-11-29T14:33:30Z")
Sorry,
What version and package type of filebeat are you using?
---
### Author:  [@purpleturtle99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/purpleturtle99)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2017, 5:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/5 "2017-11-30T05:15:44Z")
filebeat is already the newest version (5.6.4) is what I get when trying to run sudo apt install filebeat
---
### Author:  [@exekias](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/exekias)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2017, 11:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/6 "2017-11-30T11:06:21Z")
Perhaps you can try to launch filebeat by hand and see what's the error, just run:
```auto
# sudo filebeat -e -v
```
---
### Author:  [@purpleturtle99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/purpleturtle99)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2017, 2:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/7 "2017-12-01T14:14:08Z")
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
---
### Author:  [@purpleturtle99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/purpleturtle99)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2017, 7:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/8 "2017-12-03T07:44:46Z")
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
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2017, 7:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-start-filebeat-ubuntu-16-04/109520/9 "2017-12-31T07:44:50Z")
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