# How to set environment variables globally in metric beats
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-set-environment-variables-globally-in-metric-beats/154816
**Category:** Beats
**Tags:** metricbeat
**Created:** [October 31, 2018, 10:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-set-environment-variables-globally-in-metric-beats/154816 "2018-10-31T10:58:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@karthick\_tgi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/karthick_tgi)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2018, 10:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-set-environment-variables-globally-in-metric-beats/154816/1 "2018-10-31T10:58:01Z")
How to set **environment variables globally** in metric beats.
For example,
In metric beat folder inside the mysql.yml file defaultlly its hard coded like
hosts: ["root:root@tcp(localhost:3306)/"]
username and password are root & root port-3306
Now i set username and password are globally inside the metricbeat . i can access this through in **environemnt property file**.
If you have any idea please share with us.
---
### Author:  [@jsoriano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jsoriano)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2018, 12:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-set-environment-variables-globally-in-metric-beats/154816/2 "2018-11-01T12:47:34Z")
Hi @karthick_tgi,
You can use environment variables in the configuration, take a look to the documentation page about this: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/6.4/using-environ-vars.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/6.4/using-environ-vars.html)
In your case you can modify the `mysql.yml` host entry to something like this:
```auto
hosts: ['${MYSQL_USER}:${MYSQL_PASSWORD}@tcp(localhost:3306)/']
```
---
### Author:  [@karthick\_tgi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/karthick_tgi)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-set-environment-variables-globally-in-metric-beats/154816/3 "2018-11-02T04:48:06Z")
Dear @jsoriano
Thanks for your quick reply.
Yes, as you mentioned we can achieve.
Our requirement is:
#1. Need to use 2 properties like below.
a) metricbeat-staging.properties
a) metricbeat-prod.properties
#2 From yaml/yml file need to access the MySql Host, Username and Password values from properties based on the env.
Please let me know if it is possible or not.
If possible then how can we achieve.
Thanks,
Karthick
---
### Author:  [@jsoriano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jsoriano)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-set-environment-variables-globally-in-metric-beats/154816/4 "2018-11-02T11:34:48Z")
Sorry, it is not possible to load environment variables from files using only metricbeat. For that you'd have to rely on the scripts or service managers you use to configure and start metricbeat.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-set-environment-variables-globally-in-metric-beats/154816/5 "2018-11-30T11:34:48Z")
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