# Help getting started

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-getting-started/230404
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [April 29, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-getting-started/230404 "2020-04-29T16:00:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![thenewguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c77e96/32.png) [@thenewguy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/thenewguy)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-getting-started/230404/1 "2020-04-29T16:00:36Z")

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I am trying to make sense of how to use logstash but I am not getting anywhere. I am trying to deploy the logstash container to receive gelf messages from the docker logger.

How do I use the environment variable configuration options to enable the gelf input plugin?

I haven't been able to get further than:

```
{
            "name": "logstash",
            "image": "logstash:7.6.2",
            "essential": true,
            "memory": 1024,
            "portMappings": [
                {
                    "hostPort": 12201,
                    "containerPort": 12201,
                    "protocol": "udp"
                }
            ]
        }

```

What is the name of the enviornment variable used to enable the gelf input plugin and what do I set for it's value?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-getting-started/230404/2 "2020-05-27T16:00:37Z")

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