# Moving away from logstash-forwarder, and missing a couple of options

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/moving-away-from-logstash-forwarder-and-missing-a-couple-of-options/44202
**Category:** Beats
**Created:** [March 11, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/moving-away-from-logstash-forwarder-and-missing-a-couple-of-options/44202 "2016-03-11T20:55:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Don\_Pich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@Don\_Pich](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Don_Pich)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/moving-away-from-logstash-forwarder-and-missing-a-couple-of-options/44202/1 "2016-03-11T20:55:13Z")

</div>

I was able to get the installation and configuration of filebeats working fine with one exception.

I am trying to set the output of my beats to follow the following logstash-forwarder configuration:

```
"files":
  [
     {
         "paths" : ["/var/log/exim4/mainlog"],
         "fields" : { "logFormat":"exim4","logType":"mailLog" }
     },
         "paths": ["/var/log/syslog"],
         "fields" : {"logFormat":"debiansyslog","logType":"sysLog"}
     },
     {
        "paths": ["/var/log/auth.log"],
        "fields" : {"logFormat":"debiansyslog","logType":"authLog"}
     }
  ]
}

```

So my simple understanding of the filebeat.yml file, I tried to put this in:

```
  prospectors:
    # Exim Mail Logs
    - paths:
      - /var/log/exim4/mainlog
      document_type: mailLog

    # syslog
    - paths:
      - /var/log/syslog
      document_type: sysLog

    # authlog
    - paths:
      - /var/log/auth.log
      document_type: authlog

```

I have my grok and output filters setup to do stuff with logFormat and logType. So without reinventing the wheel, how can I get the same type of information to pump out of filebeats?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### 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: [March 11, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/moving-away-from-logstash-forwarder-and-missing-a-couple-of-options/44202/2 "2016-03-11T23:44:56Z")

</div>

Looks like [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/configuration-filebeat-options.html#configuration-fields](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/configuration-filebeat-options.html#configuration-fields) would do what you want.

---

<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: [July 5, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/moving-away-from-logstash-forwarder-and-missing-a-couple-of-options/44202/3 "2017-07-05T21:54:39Z")

</div>