# Starting Filebeat issue

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-issue/194977>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [August 13, 2019, 8:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-issue/194977 "2019-08-13T08:22:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![manickalai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@manickalai](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/manickalai)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 8:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-issue/194977/1 "2019-08-13T08:22:10Z")

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While starting Filebeat getting below error

Error:

Starting filebeat: Exiting: error unpacking config data: can not convert 'string' into 'object' accessing 'output.logstash' (source:'/etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml') accessing 'output' (source:'/etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml')

## Please find the config of filebeat.yml

filebeat.inputs:

- type: log  
enabled: true  
paths:
  - /tomcat/tomcat0/logs/catalina.out
  - /tomcat/tomcat1/logs/catalina.out
  - /tomcat/tomcat2/logs/catalina.out  
multiline.pattern: '^[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}'  
multiline.negate: true  
multiline.match: after  
output.logstash:  
hosts:["192.168.1.172:7606"]

---

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**Author:** ![steffens](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/steffens/32/79630_2.png) [@steffens](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/steffens)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 9:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-issue/194977/2 "2019-08-13T09:58:11Z")

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Please properly format logs and configs using the `</>` button. Filebeat configuration is sensitive to indentation, which is difficult to see without formatting.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manickalai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@manickalai](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/manickalai)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 10:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-issue/194977/3 "2019-08-13T10:15:57Z")

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> [@steffens](#):
>
> \</\>

Formating using \</\> button means could share the EG:

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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:** [September 10, 2019, 10:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-issue/194977/4 "2019-09-10T10:20:02Z")

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