# Logstash to read log files from remote Windows network drives

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-to-read-log-files-from-remote-windows-network-drives/37652>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [December 20, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-to-read-log-files-from-remote-windows-network-drives/37652 "2015-12-20T19:31:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mguiwin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mguiwin/32/6743_2.png) [@mguiwin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mguiwin)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-to-read-log-files-from-remote-windows-network-drives/37652/1 "2015-12-20T19:31:27Z")

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Hello,

I'm new to ELK, and I would like to set up a solution to index Microsoft IIS and applicative .NET logs with ES.

I'm aware about different approaches:

1. **[_app servers:_ log files ➔ Logstash] ➔ [_collecting server:_ Redis ➔ Logstash] ➔ [_ES cluster:_ ES ➔ Kibana]**  
The con of this method is to having to install, configure and maintain a logstash instance on each Windows server producing logs

2. **[_app servers:_ log files ➔ Filebeat] ➔ [_collecting server:_ Logstash ➔ Redis ➔ Logstash] ➔ [_ES cluster:_ ES ➔ Kibana]**  
The con of this method is that currently filebeat does not support multiline log entries, and my .NET apps produce multi-line exceptions. I'm not sure how the intermediate logstash+redis+logstash is to be configured to handle this.

So I thought, maybe given that Logstash is able to collect log data without filebeat or any other forwarder by itself (please correct me if I'm wrong), I might try the following:

**[_app servers:_ log files] ➔ [_collecting server:_ Samba-mapped network drives ➔ Logstash ➔ Redis ➔ Logstash] ➔ [_ES cluster:_ ES ➔ Kibana]**

In that hypothesis, I won't need to install a Logstash instance on each app server. The central logstash instance (or multiple instances) would fetch files (using Samba-mapped network drives) and apply the multiline codec before pushing log entries to Redis.

Is that a sound architectural choice? What are the possible limitations of this approach?

Thanks a lot!

mguiwin

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-to-read-log-files-from-remote-windows-network-drives/37652/2 "2015-12-21T03:31:31Z")

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If it works for your needs the yes, go for it!

Just remember that network based file systems can be slow.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-to-read-log-files-from-remote-windows-network-drives/37652/3 "2017-07-06T05:17:43Z")

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