# Multiple instances of beats running

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-instances-of-beats-running/310336>\
**Category:** Elastic Agent\
**Created:** [July 21, 2022, 8:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-instances-of-beats-running/310336 "2022-07-21T20:26:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DefensiveDepth](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/defensivedepth/32/110034_2.png) [@DefensiveDepth](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DefensiveDepth)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 8:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-instances-of-beats-running/310336/1 "2022-07-21T20:26:39Z")

</div>

Fleet + Elastic Agent 8.3.2. Agent is installed on Win10, with only the `system` integration with all defaults.

Looking at the processes running, it appears that there are multiple instances of filebeat & metricbeat running... For a total of 200+MB of RAM usage, just for the Elastic Agent with default settings.

Looking for clarification as to why there are multiple instances running and if there is some way to reduce resource usage.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/2/4/24d42361abe79aa05308465618a614311dfe6a05.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![markn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/markn/32/74417_2.png) [@markn](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/markn)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-instances-of-beats-running/310336/2 "2022-07-26T13:48:13Z")

</div>

Hi Josh,

filebeat will start 2 instances: 1 for the logs you want to ship. And 1 for it's own logs.  
For metricbeat the same. 1 for the metrics you want to ship. And 1 for it's own metrics.

Kind regards,  
Mark

---

<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:** [August 23, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-instances-of-beats-running/310336/3 "2022-08-23T13:48:28Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.