# MetricBeat HTTP Module giving "invalid character '\<' looking for beginning of value"

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-http-module-giving-invalid-character-looking-for-beginning-of-value/212840>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Created:** [December 23, 2019, 12:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-http-module-giving-invalid-character-looking-for-beginning-of-value/212840 "2019-12-23T12:00:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rahul12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Rahul12](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rahul12)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 12:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-http-module-giving-invalid-character-looking-for-beginning-of-value/212840/1 "2019-12-23T12:00:37Z")

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Hi,  
I am using Metricbeat HTTP module to check the availability of Urls. HTTP module working fine when I tested it with localhost:9200 url.  
But when I am using any custom URL it is giving me error.  
"invalid character '\<' looking for beginning of value"

Below Configuration I am using :

- module: http  
metricsets:
  - json  
period: 10s  
hosts: ["[http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com)"]  
namespace: "json\_namespace"  
path: "/"  
#body: ""  
method: "GET"  
#username: "elastic"  
#password: "\*\*\*\*\*"  
#request.enabled: true  
response.enabled: true  
#json.is\_array: true  
#dedot.enabled: true

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shaunak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/shaunak/32/6643_2.png) [@shaunak](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shaunak)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-http-module-giving-invalid-character-looking-for-beginning-of-value/212840/2 "2019-12-23T17:25:17Z")

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> [@Rahul12](#):
>
> But when I am using any custom URL it is giving me error.

Can you try performing a `GET` request to your custom URL from the command line using `cURL`? Please do this from the same host where you would be running Metricbeat. Is the response you get back valid JSON?

Shaunak

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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:** [January 20, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-http-module-giving-invalid-character-looking-for-beginning-of-value/212840/3 "2020-01-20T19:25:23Z")

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