# Specifying complex objects in environment variable doesn't work with Logstash output
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824
**Category:** Beats
**Tags:** filebeat
**Created:** [August 2, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824 "2018-08-02T23:34:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Alsheh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alsheh)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824/1 "2018-08-02T23:34:23Z")
Hi, I tried to follow the example provided in the filebeat docs to [specify complex objects in environment variables](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/6.3/using-environ-vars.html#_specify_complex_objects_in_environment_variables) (array of LS hosts in my case) for logstash output but filebeat exits with the following error message:
```auto
Exiting: error initializing publisher: missing field accessing 'output.logstash.hosts' (source:'filebeat.yml')
```
Env variable is defined in docker-compose.yml:
```auto
LS_HOSTS="logstash:5044,logstash2:5044"
```
filebeat.yml:
```auto
...
output.logstash:
hosts: '${LS_HOSTS}'
```
Is this feature exclusive for Elasticsearch output, a bug, or am I doing something wrong here?
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@kvch](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kvch)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2018, 7:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824/2 "2018-08-03T07:06:04Z")
Your config seems correct. Do you get the same error when running `filebeat` on the host without any containerization?
---
### Author:  [@Alsheh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alsheh)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824/3 "2018-08-03T17:03:46Z")
I get the same error without containerization:
Defining env variable:
```auto
export LS_HOSTS="logstash:5044,logstash2:5044"
```
filebeat.yml
```auto
...
output.logstash:
hosts: '${LS_HOSTS}'
loadbalance: true
index: filebeat
```
Logs after running Filebeat
```auto
➜ filebeat-6.3.2-linux-x86_64 ✗ sudo ./filebeat -e -c filebeat.yml -d "publish"
...
2018-08-03T16:57:56.794Z INFO instance/beat.go:225 Setup Beat: filebeat; Version: 6.3.2
2018-08-03T16:57:56.795Z INFO instance/beat.go:275 filebeat stopped.
2018-08-03T16:57:56.795Z ERROR instance/beat.go:691 Exiting: error initializing publisher: missing field accessing 'output.logstash.hosts' (source:'filebeat.yml')
Exiting: error initializing publisher: missing field accessing 'output.logstash.hosts' (source:'filebeat.yml')
```
---
### Author:  [@kvch](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kvch)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 9:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824/4 "2018-08-06T09:05:53Z")
Could you please share the full configuration file? It's possible that there is a whitespace error which messes up the parsing.
---
### Author:  [@Alsheh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alsheh)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824/5 "2018-08-06T18:48:30Z")
@kvch, here is a simplified version of the config file that produces the same error:
```auto
filebeat.inputs:
- type: log
paths:
- /var/log/*.log
output.logstash:
hosts: '${LS_HOSTS}'
```
env variable:
```auto
export LS_HOSTS="10.45.3.2:9220,10.45.3.1:9230"
```
```auto
➜ filebeat-6.3.2 sudo ./filebeat -e -c filebeat.yml -d "publish"
...
2018-08-06T11:35:54.023-0700 INFO instance/beat.go:225 Setup Beat: filebeat; Version: 6.3.2
2018-08-06T11:35:54.024-0700 INFO instance/beat.go:275 filebeat stopped.
2018-08-06T11:35:54.024-0700 ERROR instance/beat.go:691 Exiting: error initializing publisher: missing field accessing 'output.logstash.hosts' (source:'filebeat.yml')
Exiting: error initializing publisher: missing field accessing 'output.logstash.hosts' (source:'filebeat.yml')
```
Filebeat doesn't seems to be able to read env variable because I get the same error message when I simply put an empty string in the host field but works as expected when I hardcode the host in the config file! Also, I am doing the testing without any containerization and I run Filebeat in the same terminal session where I defined the the env variable.
---
### Author:  [@Alsheh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alsheh)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824/6 "2018-08-06T22:50:55Z")
Problem solved!
I used `sudo` when I ran filebeat which does not preserve env variables for security purposes. [This post helped](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/env-variables-in-not-working-in-custom-fields-in-filebeat/101374/4?u=alsheh).
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/specifying-complex-objects-in-environment-variable-doesnt-work-with-logstash-output/142824/7 "2018-09-03T22:50:59Z")
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