# How to customize beat host name or beat name

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-customize-beat-host-name-or-beat-name/117968>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Created:** [February 1, 2018, 8:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-customize-beat-host-name-or-beat-name/117968 "2018-02-01T08:44:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lory\_Hou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Lory\_Hou](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Lory_Hou)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2018, 8:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-customize-beat-host-name-or-beat-name/117968/1 "2018-02-01T08:44:49Z")

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I am using metricbeat to collect system performance via docker installation. The [beat.name](http://beat.name) and beat.hostname is the b60271bea7a3 which is not readable. Can I customize it via docker-compose file, like  
···  
environment:  
- beat.name=204  
- beat.hostname=204  
···

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**Author:** ![tudor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/tudor/32/3753_2.png) [@tudor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tudor)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2018, 1:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-customize-beat-host-name-or-beat-name/117968/2 "2018-02-01T13:07:10Z")

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You can customise `beat.name` with the `name` setting in the configuration file (In the `General` section). You can't change `beat.hostname`, so we recommend using `beat.name` in the dashboards (that's what we do in the Beats dashboards that we provide).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lory\_Hou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Lory\_Hou](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Lory_Hou)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2018, 2:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-customize-beat-host-name-or-beat-name/117968/3 "2018-02-01T14:02:08Z")

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thanks a lot, can I change via docker compose file?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tudor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/tudor/32/3753_2.png) [@tudor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tudor)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-customize-beat-host-name-or-beat-name/117968/4 "2018-02-01T14:06:54Z")

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There are multiple options, but I think easiest is to use something like this in docker-compose:

```auto
command: metricbeat -e -E name=myname

```

See [here](https://github.com/elastic/beats-docker/blob/6.1/templates/docker-compose.yml.j2) for more examples.

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<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:** [February 22, 2018, 8:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-customize-beat-host-name-or-beat-name/117968/5 "2018-02-22T08:44:58Z")

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