# Filebeat fails to start on Linux server

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-fails-to-start-on-linux-server/370504>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [November 13, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-fails-to-start-on-linux-server/370504 "2024-11-13T20:42:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nitesh.srivastava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/278dde/32.png) [@nitesh.srivastava](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nitesh.srivastava)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-fails-to-start-on-linux-server/370504/1 "2024-11-13T20:42:29Z")

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Hi,

We are trying to install Filebeat 8.11 on a RHEL server. The installation was successful. However, the filebeat service fails to start. Can someone help me troubleshoot the issue. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Here's the output of some of the checks that we ran (Server Names and IPs removed):

[root@ServerName log]# /usr/share/filebeat/bin/filebeat test config --path.config /etc/filebeat  
Config OK

[root@ServerName filebeat]# /usr/share/filebeat/bin/filebeat test output --path.config /etc/filebeat  
logstash: IP1:5055...  
connection...  
parse host... OK  
dns lookup... OK  
addresses: IP1  
dial up... OK  
TLS... WARN secure connection disabled  
talk to server... OK  
logstash: IP2:5055...  
connection...  
parse host... OK  
dns lookup... OK  
addresses: IP2  
dial up... OK  
TLS... WARN secure connection disabled  
talk to server... OK

Nov 13 15:52:32 ServerName filebeat: {"log.level":"error","@timestamp":"2024-11-13T15:52:32.009Z","log.origin":{"file.name":"instance/beat.go","file.line":1307},"message":"Exiting: error decoding original data file '/var/lib/filebeat/registry/filebeat/data.json': json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type file.State","service.name":"filebeat","ecs.version":"1.6.0"}  
Nov 13 15:52:32 ServerName filebeat: Exiting: error decoding original data file '/var/lib/filebeat/registry/filebeat/data.json': json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type file.State

Output of journalctl -xe -u filebeat:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/7/1746561b1fe2077e47cffa888156ac5a73c32fda.png)

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/4/8/48621e049c65c09a66febfac9e73f17a6b948777.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nitesh.srivastava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/278dde/32.png) [@nitesh.srivastava](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nitesh.srivastava)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-fails-to-start-on-linux-server/370504/2 "2024-12-09T17:36:22Z")

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Uninstalling and reinstalling filebeat fixed the issue.