Logstash requires setting a file

Elastic Stack Logstash
1

Logstash Info error: A setting file is missing
I installed the deb file of logstash 5.0 and I starting logstash for the first time. I get an INFO error:

INFO: Logstash requires a setting file which is typically located in $LS_HOME/config or /etc/logstash. If you installed Logstash through a package and are starting it manually please specify the location to this settings file by passing in "--path.settings=/path/.."
ERROR: Failed to load settings file from "path.settings". Aborting... path.setting=/usr/share/logstash/config, exception=Errno::ENOENT, message=>No such file or directory - /usr/share/logstash/config/logstash.yml

This seems pretty obvious to fix. So I created a directory LS_HOME/config and moved my logstash-simple.conf file there and my logstash.yml from /etc/logstash/conf.d to /etc/logstash/ directory Same INFO error

So I than used the -f flag to specified the location of the configuration file. Same INFO error. So it seems like /bin/logstash script is trying to look for a setting file .config or logstash.yml even though both files exist in the request places.

When I use:

bin/logstash -e 'input { stdin { } } output { stdout {} }'

same INFO error appears. I am out ideas. Does anyone know how to fix this INFO error?
*This is a fresh install from the logstash 5.0 deb file.
Documentation:Stashing Your First Event | Logstash Reference [5.0] | Elastic

2

Sorry for the confusion. We are making changes to the -e flag as soon as we can. It behaves differently for package (DEB/RPM) installed versions than the tarball installed version because Logstash needs --path.settings to be set to run, and packages install the correct one in /etc/logstash. The assumption made was that people installing with packages are going to go straight to /etc/logstash/conf.d to put their pipeline configuration, rather than experiment with the -e flag.

As far as $LS_HOME is concerned, package installed variants are again, different. $LS_HOME doesn't matter because it looks in /etc/logstash/logstash.yml to find all of the settings, rather than $LS_HOME/config. Putting config there is just going to cause future difficulty.

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Thanks for the quick response ! I just messaged you on another post as well.

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The reason for all of this headache is that we assumed people would be starting Logstash via upstart and systemd, not at the command-line. We have over 5 years of that use pattern that doesn't just go away. 5.0 is a major release, so we figured we could make some breaking changes and that would be acceptable. These are the growing pains :slight_smile:

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5

For anyone else coming here:

cd logstash-5.0.0
bin/logstash -e 'input { stdin { } } output { stdout {} }'

This step from the documentation only works this way if you install Logstash as a tarball, not as an RPM or DEB package. This is because the `$LS_HOME` variable is set locally, rather than finding configuration settings in `/etc/logstash`, which is what happens with a package install.

The `-e` flag was designed to merge your command-line configuration with whatever was in the `-f` (now `--path.config`) pipeline configuration file.  If `-f` was omitted, then `-e` was the _only_ configuration.  With `--path.settings` providing a default `--path.config` of `/etc/logstash/conf.d`, if there are no files there, you get a glob error that states no file was found, and things don't work.  We're going to change the `-e` and `-f` flags to be mutually exclusive in a soon-to-come patch release.  https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/6164 and https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/6165
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6

If you are using linux:

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty

The upstart command works but the error will still persist if you directly query with logstash:

sudo initctl start logstash

7

Which error? The one that says you need to have a configuration file in /etc/logstash/conf.d, or the one about logstash.yml? I ask because out of the box, if you start with a pipeline configuration in /etc/logstash/conf.d using the created startup script, you should not see the No such file or directory - /usr/share/logstash/config/logstash.yml error because the packaged version's logstash.yml file is in /etc/logstash, and the startup scripts are configured with this.

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Yes it was the same error but works now. Not sure what happened last night.

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I am kind of goin nuts now, lol. What good be the correct command line to run with falgs included for running Logstash 5? I have tried many things but keep getting errors such as [2017-02-16T15:10:12,995][INFO ][logstash.agent ] No config files found in path {:path=>"/opt/logstash/logstash-db-shipper.conf"} [2017-02-16T15:10:13,000][ERROR][logstash.agent ] failed to fetch pipeline configuration {:message=>"No config files found: /opt/logstash/logstash-db-shipper.conf. Can you make sure this path is a logstash config file?"}. I'd really appreaciate anyone who can give me example please. :frowning:

10

If you are still determined to launch Logstash from the command-line (rather than sysv/upstart/systemd), then you need a --path.settings at the very least. By default, --path.settings will point to $LS_HOME/config, where $LS_HOME is the directory where Logstash is installed. However, if you installed Logstash via an RPM or DEB, then --path.settings defaults to /etc/logstash. In order to make Logstash work at the command-line, you need to manually specify the --path.settings to the correct location. Inside $LS_HOME/config or /etc/logstash is the logstash.yml file, and a few others. This should be edited accordingly. You can override pretty much anything in the logstash.yml file with command-line flags, such as --path.config (which is the same thing as -f), which should point to a configuration file or directory of config files.

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11

Thanks! I found my issue. It was a cronjob that was an outdated elasticsearch installation. Thanks again. :slight_smile: