# Monitor servers/workstations in different locations over internet

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitor-servers-workstations-in-different-locations-over-internet/279524>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** packetbeat\
**Created:** [July 24, 2021, 7:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitor-servers-workstations-in-different-locations-over-internet/279524 "2021-07-24T07:14:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@nino](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nino)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 7:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitor-servers-workstations-in-different-locations-over-internet/279524/1 "2021-07-24T07:14:39Z")

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Hello,

i would like to know some best practices about monitoring remote servers/workstations over internet. I mean, servers in different geographical locations other than ELK server:

- how beats reach ELK?. Ports
- how beats traffic could be secured?. Secure communication because logs are traveling over internet.
- is a good practice to monitor servers and workstations not in the same local network?

I would like to listen some advices

Many thanks

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**Author:** ![leandrojmp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/leandrojmp/32/107231_2.png) [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 1:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitor-servers-workstations-in-different-locations-over-internet/279524/2 "2021-07-24T13:40:04Z")

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Your question depends entirely on your infrastructure, you just need to make sure that your beats can reach your elasticsearch or logstash.

It is pretty common to collect monitoring data from different geographic locations, but it is strongly recommended to avoid sending it over the internet, you should use VPN communications to send the data.

You can secure the communications between the beats and the outputs using SSL/TLS, this is the [documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/packetbeat/current/configuration-ssl.html) for packetbeat, the other beats have the same configuration.

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**Author:** ![nino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@nino](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nino)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitor-servers-workstations-in-different-locations-over-internet/279524/3 "2021-07-24T15:42:50Z")

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Many thanks @leandrojmp

Yes this what i need to achieve, our ELK server is in AWS EC2 and we need to collect data from several workstations and servers from different locations. Thanks for your answer much appreciated. So my best bet would be create and VPN between clients (beats) and ELK server.

Best regards

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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:** [August 21, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/monitor-servers-workstations-in-different-locations-over-internet/279524/4 "2021-08-21T17:43:29Z")

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