# Filebeat logrotation multiline data loss

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-logrotation-multiline-data-loss/153629>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [October 23, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-logrotation-multiline-data-loss/153629 "2018-10-23T14:38:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PeterPloug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@PeterPloug](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PeterPloug)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-logrotation-multiline-data-loss/153629/1 "2018-10-23T14:38:21Z")

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Hi All  
OS: red hat  
filebeat version: 6.4.2  
First of I am very new to the entire ELK stack and I am trying to replace Heka with filebeat/logstash.  
I have an issue where log rotation is dividing a xml event across log files.  
This means the event is partly in one log file and partly in another.  
I have setup filebeat to read multiline using a pattern, which matches the specific xml structure. The problem is that I am loosing data when the xml event is big and the log file is rotated.  
The multiline pattern works fine as long as the entire event is inside ONE log file.

I understand that filebeat is using multiple harvesters to read all new log files and what I am looking for is most likely a sequential reading of log files.

I need to parse the xml event in logstash or directly in filebeat (not decided yet).

Is there anyway for filebeat to handle this situation?

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**Author:** ![pierhugues](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/pierhugues/32/48383_2.png) [@pierhugues](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pierhugues)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-logrotation-multiline-data-loss/153629/2 "2018-10-25T14:00:11Z")

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@PeterPloug I think it's a limitation of Filebeat there, we effectively assume that a multiline log event is not splitted between different files. Supporting this would require us to change a few things and be able to undestand file order to make sure events are correctly merged together.

Filebeat doesn't currently support reading XML content, so I think the best approach is to use Logstash and the XML filter in that case.

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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:** [November 22, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-logrotation-multiline-data-loss/153629/3 "2018-11-22T14:00:15Z")

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