Should I prefer beats or Elastic Agent for monitoring application deployed using docker stack and not kubernetes?

[Mahesh_Abnave]

I have an application up and running in set of docker containers (deployed using docker stack and not kubernetes). I want to do performance monitoring for this application. I am confused about whether I should go for beats or Elastic Agent.

This page says:

When Elastic Agent runs inside of a container, it cannot be upgraded through Fleet as it expects that the container itself is upgraded.

This page says:

Standalone mode — All policies are applied to the Elastic Agent manually as a YAML file.

Q1. Does this mean that in standalone mode Elastic Agent is not "at all" managed by Fleet? Or some part of management

This page says:

Standalone Elastic Agents are manually configured and managed locally on the systems where they are installed. They are useful when you are not interested in centrally managing agents in Fleet, either due to your company’s security requirements, or because you prefer to use another configuration management system.

This page says:

To run an Elastic Agent in standalone mode, install the agent on each host you want to monitor and manually configure the agent locally on the system where it’s installed. You are responsible for managing and upgrading the agents.

Q2. Does this mean that for monitoring docker containers (deployed using docker stack and not kubernetes), there is no difference between between beats and Elastic agents in terms of "central" management? Only difference would be that I have to configure different beats separately, which is avoided with Elastic Agent?

Q3. What should I prefer in this case? Beats or Elastic Agent?

[ChrsMark (Chris Mark)]

Hi @Mahesh_Abnave!

I will try to cover your questions.
Q1: Yes, standalone Agent will just communicate with ES directly shipping data to it.

Q2: Yeap, standalone Agent acts like a single Beat in that case.

Q3: I would say whatever that fits better to your experience but keep in mind that most recent features are coming with Elastic Agent firstly so if you want to be on the edge you can take this way by now.