# How to config Logstash to set custom type
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [March 28, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616 "2016-03-28T18:18:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tuananhtd](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tuananhtd)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616/1 "2016-03-28T18:18:50Z")
Hi guys! I know that this maybe a duplicated topic but I guess that the old topic is just outdated since I couldn't make it works.
In my project I use FileBeat to ship JSON logs to Logstash. I want to have different type of logs eg. client side errors, server side errors ... so I think using the Elasticsearch's type could be a good idea.
I couldn't find any concrete document about the Logstash's config file but it seems like the trick is having a type file in the JSON object and tell Logstash to use that value as the type. I tried to follow [this](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-could-i-set-index-type-at-logstash/985) but it didn't work. All the documents were set to log type.
I also tried this but there is no different
```auto
input {
beats {
port => 5044
codec => "json"
}
}
output {
elasticsearch {
hosts => "localhost:9200"
manage_template => false
document_type => "%{type}"
}
}
```
Hope to hear from you!
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616/2 "2016-03-28T19:37:53Z")
You need to define `%{type}` somewhere, is it in your json?
---
### Author:  [@tuananhtd](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tuananhtd)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616/3 "2016-03-28T20:03:21Z")
Thank! but how to define it? my JSON will be something like this:
```auto
{"type": "server-error", "message":"random-error", ...}
```
But of course it didn't work!
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616/4 "2016-03-29T05:33:56Z")
Seems like that should've worked. If you temporarily replace the elasticsearch output with a `stdout { codec => rubydebug }` output you can see exactly what the events look like. I'd be interesting to see your Filebeat configuration too.
---
### Author:  [@tuananhtd](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tuananhtd)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2016, 6:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616/5 "2016-03-29T06:18:25Z")
Thank @magnusbaeck!
My FileBeat's config is just the default one except the log directory.
After debugging I find out that I just cannot use the `type` field in the JSON object. Maybe that name is reserved or overwritten at some point?
So changing the Logstash config to `document_type => "%{MY_FIELD}"` (where `MY_FIELD` is NOT equal `type`) and having the corresponding field in my JSON object will make it work.
Recently I realized that beside the `_type` field which I think Elasticsearch set for every document, Logstash will have another `type` field (without the underscore). `document_type` setting will affect the `_type` field.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 5:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-config-logstash-to-set-custom-type/45616/6 "2017-07-06T05:04:59Z")